Introduction of Aluminum Alloy Surface Treatment

In the era of appearance economy, exquisite products are often recognized by more people, and the so-called texture is obtained through vision and touch. For this feeling, surface treatment is a very critical factor. For example, the shell of a laptop computer is made of a whole piece of aluminum alloy through CNC processing of the shape, and then polishing, high-gloss milling and other multiple processes are processed to make its metal texture coexist with fashion and technology. Aluminum alloy is easy to process, has rich surface treatment methods, and good visual effects. It is widely used in laptops, mobile phones, cameras and other products. It is often combined with surface treatment processes such as polishing, brushing, sandblasting, high-gloss cutting and anodizing to make the product present different textures.

Polish

The polishing process mainly reduces the roughness of the metal surface through mechanical polishing or chemical polishing, but polishing cannot improve the dimensional accuracy or geometric shape accuracy of the parts, but is used to obtain a smooth surface or mirror-like gloss appearance.
Mechanical polishing uses sandpaper or polishing wheels to reduce the roughness and make the metal surface flat and bright. However, the hardness of aluminum alloy is not high, and using coarse-grained grinding and polishing materials will leave deeper grinding lines. If fine grains are used, the surface is finer, but the ability to remove milling lines is greatly reduced.
Chemical polishing is an electrochemical process that can be considered as reverse electroplating. It removes a thin layer of material on the metal surface, leaving a smooth and ultra-clean surface with a uniform gloss and no fine lines that appear during physical polishing.
In the medical field, chemical polishing can make surgical tools easier to clean and disinfect. In electrical appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines, the use of chemical polishing products can make the parts last longer and have a brighter appearance. The use of chemical polishing in key aircraft components can reduce friction resistance, be more energy-efficient and safer.

Sandblasting

Many electronic products use sandblasting technology to make the surface of the product present more subtle matte touch, similar to frosted glass. The matte material is implicit and steady, creating the low-key and durable characteristics of the product.
Sandblasting uses compressed air as the power to spray materials, such as copper ore sand, quartz sand, corundum, iron sand, sea sand, etc., at high speed onto the surface of aluminum alloy, changing the mechanical properties of the surface of aluminum alloy parts, improving the fatigue resistance of parts, and increasing the adhesion between the original surface of parts and coatings, which is more beneficial to the durability of the coating and the leveling and decoration of the coating.
The sandblasting surface treatment process is the fastest and most thorough cleaning method. You can choose between different roughnesses to form different roughnesses on the surface of aluminum alloy parts.

Brushing

Brushing is very common in product design, such as notebooks and headphones in electronic products, refrigerators and air purifiers in household products, and it is also used in car interiors. The center console with a brushing panel can also enhance the quality of the car.
Repeatedly scraping lines on the aluminum plate with sandpaper can clearly show every fine silk mark, making the matte metal shine with fine hair luster, giving the product a firm and atmospheric beauty. According to the needs of decoration, it can be made into straight lines, random lines, spiral lines, etc.
The microwave oven that won the IF Award uses brushing on the surface, which has a firm and atmospheric beauty, combining fashion and technology.

High gloss milling

The high gloss milling process uses a precision engraving machine to cut parts and process local highlight areas on the surface of the product. Some mobile phones have their metal shells milled with a circle of highlight chamfers, and some small metal parts have one or several highlight shallow straight grooves milled to increase the bright color changes on the surface of the product, which is very fashionable.
In recent years, some high-end TV metal frames have adopted the high gloss milling process, and the anodizing and brushing processes make the TV full of fashion and technological sharpness.

Anodizing

In most cases, aluminum parts are not suitable for electroplating because aluminum parts are very easy to form an oxide film on oxygen, which will seriously affect the bonding strength of the electroplating layer. Anodizing is generally used.
Anodizing refers to the electrochemical oxidation of metals or alloys. Under specific conditions and the action of an applied current, a layer of aluminum oxide film is formed on the surface of the part, which improves the surface hardness and surface wear resistance of the part and enhances the corrosion resistance.
In addition, through the adsorption capacity of a large number of micropores in the thin oxide film, the surface of the part can be colored into various beautiful and bright colors, enriching the color performance of the part and increasing the beauty of the product.