Surface finishing
For surface treatment include all technical process of surface technology used in the production are applied a part to improve the surface properties.
The surface properties can be both functional (e.g. corrosion protection , wear protection , ...) and decorative (degree of gloss, color, ...) nature, or a combination of the two. The individual process comprises several processes that run one after the other in order to achieve the desired final property.
Important surface finishing processes
- Application of layers (coatings)
- metallic coatings
- Enamel coatings (e.g. hot-dip galvanizing )
- Galvanic coatings (e.g. galvanic gold plating)
- Plating (e.g. gold leaf coating)
- PVD layers (e.g. metallized plastic)
- Thermally sprayed layers (e.g. flame- sprayed zinc )
- metallic coatings
-
ceramic coatings
- Reaction layers (e.g. nitrided steel)
- CVD layers (e.g. TiN ( titanium nitride ))
- Thermally sprayed layers (e.g. plasma-sprayed Al 2 O 3 )
-
ceramic coatings
- amorphous coatings
- Enamel (fused glass)
- amorphous coatings
- organic coatings
- Painting (e.g. powder painting )
- Plastic coating (e.g. foils, water transfer printing )
- organic coatings
- Removing layers
- Pickling (e.g. hydrochloric acid )
Objectives of surface finishing
There are two possible overarching objectives, but they can also overlap:
- Improvement of the functional properties
- Corrosion protection (e.g. galvanizing and painting in automotive engineering)
- Wear protection (e.g. hard material layers such as TiN on metal drills)
- Prevention of contamination (e.g. coating with nanoparticles or plastic coating of food cans )
- Improvement of decorative properties
- Achieving a high degree of gloss (e.g. gold- plating of jewelry, nano-sealing )
- Achieving certain colors (e.g. gilding jewelry)
Demarcation
Not for surface finishing includes mechanical machining process such as grinding or polishing, but as a process in a surface finishing process may be integrated.