General speaking, surface treatment is to improve the performance of products and enhance the aesthetics. And the appearance of the exquisite product is more popular with customers.

Today let’s introduce some common surface finish for aluminum prototypes. 

1.Electroplating: divided into water plating and vacuum plating. After electroplating on the surface of aluminum products, a protective film will be formed on the surface, which can protect the aluminum products from being corroded when exposed to the air. And electroplating can choose color.

2.Oxidation: When aluminum products need to be colored, oxidation is a very good surface treatment method. On the one hand, oxidation can enhance the physical characteristics of product and protect the surface from being etched; On the other hand, the nice appearance will promote the overall quality of products. Oxidation is suitable for a variety of aluminum products, relatively simple.

3.Sand blasting: The purpose of sand blasting is to overcome and cover up some defects or knife lines produced by the aluminum alloy during mechanical processing, so as to meet the customer's appearance requirements for the product. Generally, there are two kinds of sand, one is glass beads sand, the other is thin sand. The two kinds of sand will have different effect. 

4.Polishing: it is a common surface method; we can polish the burry and make the surface become brighter. 

5.Brushing: it is a method that can brush some texture, forming a smooth continuous texture on the surface. On the one hand, it can cover some defects of the product, on the other hand, it can improve the appearance of product. The disadvantage is that after drawing the aluminum product, if the parts haven't been oxidized, the surface is easily corroded.

Above are some common surface finish on aluminum prototypes. If you are interested in these methods or you have any other requirements, welcome to contact us at enquiry@nice-rapidtooling.com!