Posted October 29, 2010
By Mike Sung
The Problem:
A customer was trying to finish a 2024 aluminum enclosure that was tube-shaped but closed at one end, much like a large test tube. The part was about 24” long and had an I.D. of 2”. The outside needed to be finished with a conventional Type II anodize while the ID needed a Type III hard coat. The coating of the ID was required to have a consistent .003” to .004” thickness along the full length of the bore, have a 32 or better finish before honing, and be hard enough to hone further. These specified requirements were dictated by the blueprint of well known OEM, and the company felt it would have to solicit the end user to change these specifications as they were unable to find any finisher in the U.S.A who could meet them.
Upon hearing from the customer, D-CHN, along with its sister company, The Sanford Process Corporation, set out to meet this challenge. It was, in our customer’s eyes, a very significant issue causing a major production standstill. Using Sanford Process Plus® technology and some creative engineering techniques, the first process run showed positive results and enabled the customer to reverse its decision to seek design specification changes. After some further process adjustments, the conditions specified in the print were deemed not only possible, but were in fact sound engineering. The resulting team effort led the two companies to have a successful campaign to produce these parts on a regular basis and the end user to have their design perform as anticipated in the field.
This problem was technically challenging but satisfying to our teams. Hard coating of 2024, and 2000 series aluminum in general, is extremely difficult and in fact, most anodize companies are not equipped to be successful. Sanford Process’ Plus® technology along with D-CHN’s technical staff successfully solved the problems surrounding the challenging set of criteria. Together, Sanford and D-CHN have created technology capable of the most demanding applications.
