Hi Folks, i am about to order some parts in Aluminium. I would like to know if anyone has experience with anodizing this. the texture is a bit rough but that's no problem in my opinion. i would like the parts to be black. Any thoughts? is this alloy a problem?
Well since it just became available to the public I suspect you may be the first to try. Should work but there are always technicalities that can make a simple question complex. I say order away!,.. and let us know how in goes. -S
This came up during the pilot phase already - from what I found the particular alloy used appears to be a poor choice for anodizing. (The high silicon content of casting alloys apparently leads to dull and/or blotchy surfaces after anodizing, as the material contains plate-like silicon crystallites that are unaffected by the anodizing process)
Hi All, Unfortunately, we do not believe anodizing will be successful on the aluminum we offer. However, we have not done any internal testing to confirm this. If anyone does try it out, I would love to see the results. Since the silicon content is high, I would expect a dark gray finish rather than a black finish. Hope this helps! Blair
A little late to the party but here is a sample. On the right is 3d aluminum, left is 6061 machined from the same batch. No surface prep done on the 3d printed part.