I understand the importance of a chemically clean, oxide-free surface to produce a high-quality anodizing oxide film. My understanding about electropolishing is that it unavoidably produces a thin layer of aluminum oxide on the aluminum surface. So I don't understand why electropolishing is a common treatment before anodizing although it doesn't clean up the oxide like the mechanical polishing does. Thank you for any insight on this.
Electropolishing process is considered just only when the surface finish is strongly recommended since this process improves the aluminum surface prior to anodizing by smoothing out the peaks and valleys as well as producing highly reflective, decorative surfaces, free of stress and occlusion.
The truth is the reproducibility of experimental methods to include electropolishing prior to anodizing has excluded the conditions under which it is required. In essence, people still go ahead to electropolish even when detailed microstructural is not to be carried out, Like Hussein pointed out, you only need to electropolish when surface examination is to be carried out with advanced analytical technqiue for precision sake.
On a lighter note, In Ancient times, People chop off the two edges of carrot before boiling and it is still done today. Before a disconnect between the ancient and modern times. The young granddaughter asked the great granny why she usually chop off the carrot and she said it was because the pot was too small to contain the length of the carrot. She had erroneously thought, it is unedible part of the whole recipe. Hope you get my drift!
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Engineering
- Materials Engineering
- Annealing
- Metallurgy
- Metals