Editorial Magazine 2019/3
ALUANODIC AND ALUCOAT REVOLUTIONS
HIGH-TECH AND GREEN
Yes, the revolution in surface finishing of aluminium is a reality today and it is also “green”.
The last congress “Aluminium Two Thousand 2019”, held in Treviso, Italy, has confirmed our idea that an authentic technological revolution is underway and will continue in the coming years.
This “revolution” changes the way that anodizing and coating are performed in the 21st century.
Aluminium can now be pretreated mechanically, providing an attractive range of finishes, from brushes, polished, semi finished, matt finishes, with high savings of pretreatment chemicals, especially of those needed in large amounts (caustic soda) for matt finish. In this last case also a large saving of aluminium dissolution is obvious.
Anodizing process? Goodbye (it will happen) to the old rules (1.5 A/dm2, 20° C, etc.): there will be quality production, reduction of anodizing times, less Al3+ dissolution and properties will be superior to those that are achieved presently with conventional processes.
Colouring? Electrolytic of course. Goodbye to the old immersion dyes with low resistance to the light: today there is a complete range of new electrolytic colours, available from grey to blue to green and other shades.
Sealing? Goodbye to nickel products in favour of new nickel free ecological processes.
Pretreatment before coating? Goodbye to hexavalent chrome in favour of chrome free coloured pretreatment.
Waste water treatment? Goodbye to traditional plants with zero liquid discharge by means of expensive evaporators with very expensive energy running costs in favour of zero liquid discharge and full water recycling innovative systems without evaporators.
Sludge after anodizing plants? Goodbye to 50% of volumes and weight with drastic reduction of water in the sludge.
Special effects? Goodbye to old colours and effects, thanks to new special effects.
Digital machines that allow to print anodized aluminium sheets and produce any type of effect/design are now available on the market.
This printing technology is the so called double anodizing: in this case the digital printing machine is used only to mask some parts of anodic coating after the first anodizing step, and then the “polymerized masking ink” is removed after the second anodizing step.
One additional special effect is obtained by creating small holes in anodized or painted sheets; a special software is responsible for creating any type of drawing by means of these holes, small or big, according to the final effect. This technology has been advertised for architectural applications as “walls to communicate”.
A further innovative process named Decormatt creates a permanent decoration on metal surfaces by means of a “controlled growth of protective oxides”. The Decormatt technology allows to create, on the metal surface, any decoration and effect, with huge advantages over standard laser or pigment methods.
Alusurface 2020 to be held in Italy in March 2020 will be a unique opportunity to get in touch with the “experts” and to take the step from dreams to facts.
For more information about the 23th International Alusurface Seminar 2020 please contact Interall at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Walter Dalla Barba,
Editor and Chairman of the Aluminium Two Thousand World Congress and Alusurface 2020
