Metal Finishing: Ensuring Perfect Metal Surfaces
Metal finishing changes a metal’s surface to make it more resistant to corrosion, wear, and rust because of air pollutants, normal wear, and chemicals. It increases a metal product’s lifespan. This is the reason metal fabricators should pre-treat surfaces to guarantee optimal surface bonds. Metal finishing offers a perfect surface of different alloys of stainless steel and aluminum. It is a consideration you might want to keep in mind if you need steel supply Houston.
Kinds of Metal Finishing
Metal finishing companies provide a variety of metal finishing types to suit a project’s need and budget. These types include:
- Anodizing. This process changes the properties of the base metal while producing minimal waste products. With this process, the metal will have increased resistance to corrosion, receptivity to the bonding applications, and increased hardness.
- Plating. This involves the addition of a layer of another metal. It is best for applications that involve insulation and conductivity.
- Powder coating. This is carried out through electrostatic application and thermal curing. It offers durability to the exposed surfaces. Also, it can be used on parts that endure more stress than usual.
Benefits of Metal Finishing
- Improves a metal product’s aesthetics. Metal fabricators make use of different techniques to accomplish metal and steel finishing and polishing. It depends on factors such as the kind of metal and the application. To finish a metal, there are many processes involved such as removing sharp edges, cleaning the surface, and smoothing it. Depending on the client’s specifications, various textures might also be offered along with other decorative options such as metal polishing, glass beading, custom metal plating, and color application.
- Increases the product’s resistance. Metal finishing enhances the longevity of a metal product by increasing its resistance to wear, which is a factor that can cause metal disintegration. Also, a finished metal can resist abrasion, chemical damage, and other forms of deterioration. The reason is that the metal finishing system provides a low coefficient of friction with great resistance to abrasion and durability towards corrosion, tarnish wear, and chemical wear. With this, metal products are expected to last for the maximum time possible.
- Makes it easy to clean the product. Unfinished metal products tend to have rough surfaces. But, they can be polished to reduce adhesion and contamination. Also, the finish minimizes the amount of time required for cleaning the product and eliminates the need to use harmful chemicals to ensure the surface is clean. Using these chemicals can increase the rate of metal wear.
