POST FINISH TREATMENT FOR PLASTIC AND METAL
What is the prototype finishing options?
Post finishing treatment is an important surface finishing process for the appearance mockups, functional mechanical parts, prototypes as well as the production parts. As the final process of production, the finishing is to remove burrs, marks, or add coats to improve the part appearance effects , and to improve the resistance and function of the use environment.
there are varieties of finish treatment for the plastic parts and metals parts, such as sanding, polishing, blasting, bruhing, painting, plating, anodising, powder costing, e coating, keronite, bluing, pasivating.
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Machined Finish
Machined finish is the CNC machined parts without any finish, parts finish standard is oil cleaned and deburr after machining
Sanding Finish
Sanding finish is the hand sanding process with the sand paper from mesh 150# - 2000# + to remove CNC line from machining and marks, sanding to which mesh standard is better depends on required roughness from client or for the next treatment. .
Polishing
Polishing is one of the process to make the surface roughness Ra.# as tiny as possible, to reflect the shiny effect. This process can be applied on metal reflecting part as bright polish, on opaque plastic for further plating process and on PMMA lamps and lens prototype for optical clear effect.
Vapor Polishing
Vapor polish is a polish method for PC clear parts and prototypes, which using the chemical vapor to reduce the surface roughness and improve the clarity for machined PC parts
Electropolish
Electropolish is an electrochemical bath treatment for stainless steel volume parts to remove flaws from the surface of the stainless steel and reduce the roughness. The process will lead to a shiny and smooth surface finish.
Sand Blasting
Sand blasting known as abrasive blasting, is one of the cleaning process to remove the oil on part or create a greater surface similar to manual sandpaper sanding. This is normally used to get the even texture on the metal prototype parts especially for the machining Aluminum parts before Anodise. And this process is sometime apply on the clear prototype parts to get a foggy finish or removing and covering the sanding line.
Bead blasting
bead blasting similar to sandblasting but more pressure than sandblasting is normally used for the mass production machining parts or die casting process with the big flashes and rough surface.
Painting (primer/matt texture/gloss /satin/ Rubberized/ metallic/baking paint)
Painting is the most common finish treatment in both rapid prototyping and mass production. Depend on the effect there are primer painting, matte painting with texture, gloss painting, Satin, Rubberized painting, metallic painting and baking paint on metal. Color sample can be chosen from the Pantone C # and RAL, texture can be chosen from the Mold Tech# or the VID#.
PVD Plating
PVD coating known as Plating Vacuum Deposition, in China we call it Vacuum plating, is a process that happen in the vacuum vessel to have three layers deposition on top of the product, which the product material no need to be conductive as the process is sputtering.
Electro Plating
Electro plating in China we also call it water plating as it is a bath electro process to coating on the metal or plastic conductive material with an external metallic layer to improve the durability, the reflectivity and wear ability beauty or metallic
Chromate Conversion
Chromate conversion known as alodine coating is a bath film conversion process as a primer to improve the adherence of the part substrate and color dye in anodize. It provides a clear alodine film to protect Aluminum parts from corrosion and preserve electrical conductive.
Anodised
Anodized is also a chemical baths electrolytic passivation process to produce an oxide coating layer on the aluminum and aluminum alloys. The layer on top is electrically insulation which increases the part corrosion resistance and wear resistance. Aluminum anodize is the most common finish in prototyping and CNC machining area.
Keronite Coating
Keronite known as PEO is an advance treatment for light metal like magnesium alloy, it is also a method to increases the part corrosion resistance and wear resistance as anodized, in many country, black keronite technology is mature, but in China, the only color for Keronite is white Grey, normally if black color requires will need extra black painting or powder coating.
Powder Coating
Powder coating in prototype we divided into two types according to the product usage, the indoor powder coating and outdoor powder coating. The material of powder is normally polyester dry powder, which during heat spraying the coat applied on part as a free flowing and dry. The indoor powder coat and outdoor powder coat shows not only different on the function but also different in thickness and texture roughness
E-Coating
E-Coating is a wet process compared to the dry process of powder coating, they are in similar working principle. it provides superior protection for the surfaces of a wide range of metal components, which is to enhance the corrosion resistance , coverage and promote adhesion. It is widely used in the automotive sector and heavy industries.
Blackening (bluing)
Blackening (bluing) is a conversion coating process to protect the Steel parts and other metals against rust and improve the condition and aesthetic quality; it is something black oxidizing on steel parts mostly used in gun components making.
Passivation
Passivation is a chemical finish treatment to remove the free Iron from the surface of the stainless steel parts to enhance the corrosion resistance of the part. For this reason, passivating parts preform good in medical, aerospace and heavy industries
Hardened
Hardened is a heating finish process to make the part become hard and harder on medium or high carbon steel, normally used for the equipment, tools and tooling after machining to improve the part mechanical properties
Annealed
Annealed in the contrast is on the opposite site of Hardened, which is to softer the steel hardness for friendly machining or forming.
Silkscreen
Silkscreen is a print process for prototype products to transfer the Logo or characters onto a flat surface by using a mesh film and ink. The color of the logo or characters can be matched according to different requirement, but each time only print one color, multi-colors need multi times
Pad Printing
Pad Printing is a print process for low volume production or mess product logo and characters printing by using the steel printing plate, soft rubber head and ink. This process is good for both flat surface curved surface in a 3-D object
Laser etching
Laser etching has the same effect as laser engraving , but in different depth, it is a process to remove the material from the surface of an object by laser, this process can be applied on metal parts, painting and plating parts, the etching area is with the natural color of the parts