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Sound technical content, curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ

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Polished die casting suffers abrasion in use -- how to protect it?

March 14, 2014

Q. Hi all,

Hope someone can help. I work for a design consultant in the UK. we have recently designed a new table range for a UK manufacturer.

59558

You can see from the image that the table a has a polished high pressure die cast foot. Currently we have a problem when the tables are stacked together: the feet come into contact with each other and rub, causing localized abrasion. This abrasion is very apparent due to the high quality finishing of the part.

My issue is that we need to find a way of protecting the part that will retain the polished appearance but provide a harder wearing surface, without adding too much cost. The aluminium grade is (I think) LM24. This is manufactured by a German company, but moulded in China.

We are currently looking into chrome plating but my concern is that it make be costly and is perhaps not the best from an environmental perspective.

Are there any alternatives?

Many thanks for any feedback.

Julian

Julian Evans
Designer - Chichester, West Sussex, UK

A. Hi Julian. I think you have three options for a metallic look:

- Electroplating with something scratch resistant, as you mentioned.
- Anodizing, which produces a hard and scratch resistant surface, but which may be somewhat grayish; it will depend upon the alloy, but diecastings are unlikely to anodize really bright.
- A hard clear coat, such as a 2-part automotive clearcoat, or a UV or radiation cured clearcoat. I think the UV or radiation cured clearcoat will be overall the most satisfactory and cost-effective approach, but it's just my guess, and hopefully other readers will chime in.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
March 2014

March 19, 2014

Thanks for the response. We saw our client recently and we have chosen a chrome finish which seems to sort the problem very well.

Julian

Julian Evans [returning]
- Chichester, West Sussex, UK

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