What are the main finishing methods of sheet metal products?
What are the main finishing methods of sheet metal products?
Because some sheet metal material does not have anti-rust and anti-corrosion capabilities or we need to remove some processing traces for beautiful appearance or to gain better processing capability for next processes, we have to do some finishing.
Several common finishing of sheet metal are: sandblasting, brushing, painting, electroplating, oxidation, screen printing.
Sand blasting
Through the wind blasting machine, sand particles hit the surface of workpiece to form a layer of dense pits on the surface of parts. The main role is to remove the dirt on the surface of the workpiece as well as to increase the adhesion of the surface for subsequent surface treatments.
Brushing
The brushing is to put the material in the brushing machine between the top and bottom of the outer wheel, the outer wheel attached with sand belt, driven by the motor, let the material through the upper and lower sand belt, pull out a trace on the surface of the material, relevant trace thickness is generated according to the sand belt used. The main role is to beautify the appearance. Generally aluminum material is used for brushing treatment.
Painting
Through spraying, high temperature baking, etc., a layer of various colors of paint is sprayed on the surface of the material to beautify the appearance, and it can increase the corrosion resistance of parts. This is a very common method of surface treatment. Generally there are two kinds of paints, liquid paint and powder paint. Painting surface is not conductive. Paint is not allowed in areas with EMC requirements.
Main technical indexes: color difference, film thickness and gloss.
Electroplating
Through chemical reaction, a layer of other metals is attached to the surface of parts, which is used to increase the corrosion resistance of the metal, and it can achieve a certain beautification of the appearance. It is a common surface treatment, such as electric galvanizing, nickel plating and so on.
Colorful zinc plating, blue and white zinc, black zinc, chrome plating is very common.
Anodizing
The metal on the surface of parts is oxidized to form a layer of dense protective film on the surface of the workpiece to increase the corrosion resistance. Generally there are two ways of anodizing, chemical oxidation and anodic oxidation. It is a common way of surface treatment and color anodizing, black anodizing and color anodizing are widely applied for part finishing.
Screen printing
The process of screen printing on the surface of materials has two ways: flat screen printing and pad printing. The main principle is same as the imaging principle of camera film, which is also an exposure process. Flat screen printing is mainly used on the general plane, but if there are deep pits, you need to use pad printing.
Usually screen printing is used in trademarks, use signs, warning signs, etc.
Through proper surface treatments, products can change the color, texture and roughness and to perform protective function. At Accu Prototyping, we offer various finishing solutions for metal sheet manufacturing. If you have any queries of technical or product needs in this area, please contact with our product manager Flemming at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Thank you!
