To the best of my knowledge there is no way to do barrel electropolishing. All products need to be racked. The reason for racking the products to be electropolished is because they need to be individually connected to the electrode to receive the electric charge for the process to occur.
It is however possible to do barrel stainless steel passivation or barrel metal pickling. There are many passivation manufacturers which have a barrel and some sort of shaking process which makes sure that the products get full coverage across the surface of the product in the liquid.
The main reason that electropolishing is a costlier process than passivation or pickling is because the products need to be individually racked for electropolishing and this costs more in labor time.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized on August 25, 2015 by danvoell.
We realized that it has been a while since we have posted. Time flies when you are really busy. We wanted to thank all of our wonderful customers for continuing to help us grow and spread the word about our organization. Its looking like 2015 will be our biggest year to date. Thanks!
This entry was posted in Uncategorized on August 12, 2015 by danvoell.
This specification covers several different types of chemical passivation treatments for stainless steel parts. It includes recommendations and precautions for descaling, cleaning, and passivation of stainless steel parts.
Along with electropolishing we do a lot of passivation projects here. Passivation is a simpler process than electropolishing and often more affordable. Passivation can be done in batches whereas electropolishing needs to be done with each part being independent. If you are a device designer or researcher and need help passivating your products to the ASTM A967 specification don't hesitate to reach out today.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized on September 30, 2014 by danvoell.
Do you usually electro polish on the entire part including the tip?
Yes! Usually we electro polish the entire work piece. There can be a small mark where the work piece is being held but otherwise we do electropolish the whole part.
Can you do a different finish to the tip vs. the shaft?
Yes! You can electropolish only the tip if you would like. Electropolishing is basically dipping the product in electrolyte and sending current into the piece. You can control how much of the product is dipped into the solution and that is the part which get's electropolished. It is difficult to hold extreme tolerances when electropolishing just a portion of the work piece but it is possible.
Since electro-polishing sheds a layer – is it problematic with thin parts in the design? is the shedding uniform or relative to original dimensions?
Electropolishing is uniform across the area exposed to the Electropolishing. The amount of material lost can be controlled to a high level of precision On a nano level, electropolishing does remove peaks faster than valleys, which makes it smoother, but this doesn't affect the relative design on most products.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized on July 30, 2014 by danvoell.
Depending on the industry standard you are working with, your electropolishing process can differ in a few ways. Make sure to consult with the ASTM standards for your industry or regulatory group. Below we will identify a typical electropolishing process including the pre-electropolishing and post-electropolishing methods for the perfect surface finish.
It is important that all surfaces be uniformly exposed to the electrolyte solution so a pre-electropolishing wash process should be established. Classic Electropolishing puts all parts through a wash and rinse cycle with agitation to get any surface imperfections such as coolant or grease off of the parts.
Carefully inspect your welds to ensure that the part has continuous seams and is free of pits or gaps where the electrolyte solution could collect.
The electropolishing steps are discussed in additional posts on this blog. Recently we discussed the steps of DIY Electropolishing. DIY Electropolishing.
The basic steps of electropolishing include: heating the electrolytic solution, securing your work piece to the electropolishing tooling, submerging your work piece into the electrolytic solution, turning on the proper amps of electricity to begin the actual electropolishing.
Heat the electrolytic solution securing your work piece to the electropolishing tooling, submerging your work piece into the electrolytic solution, turning on the proper amps of electricity to begin the actual electropolishing.
Secure your work piece to the electropolishing tooling submerging your work piece into the electrolytic solution, turning on the proper amps of electricity to begin the actual electropolishing.
Submerging your work piece into the electrolytic solution turning on the proper amps of electricity to begin the actual electropolishing.
Set your timer to when the workpiece will be done electropolishing.
Depending on the design specifications of your electropolishing process, you may need to electropolish the product, re-rack the product and then electropolish again so as to make sure that the entire workpiece is electropolished otherwise you might get extensive marks where the workpiece was being held in the rack tooling.
Following electropolishing all traces of the electrolyte solution are to be thoroughly removed from the part. One process to use after the part has been electropolished is a nitric acid followed by a hot rinse, followed by a rinse, followed by drying. According to ASTM B912 the electropolisher must include post-coating procedures as part of the process, as well as performance testing by means such as a salt spray test, a humidity test or a copper sulfate test. Surfaces should be dried with a soft, non-particulating cloth.
The preceding was meant to serve as an introductory blog post describing the steps of a typical electropolishing process. We have seen many different types of electropolishing processes. If you have variant processes or process improvements we would love to hear about them.
This entry was posted in electropolishing, Uncategorized on July 29, 2014 by danvoell.
Top engineers demand perfect surface finishes. What do they do when part of the machining process causes metal surface imperfections? One option that helps in a variety of situations is electropolishing.
Metal surface imperfections can happen in manufacturing for a variety of reasons. Most often imperfections happen as a result of an abrasive machining process. During the abrasive process a machining tool comes into contact with metal to remove materials and some of the material is left behind.
Chatter—(metal) a series of traverse marks in the metal.
Dent—a mark transferred to a substrate surface from an imperfect process roll or something on a roll. The most common causes are tape, metal particles and dirt.
Metal marking—black or gray marks left on a painted strip when bare metal is drawn across its surface. White and light-colored coatings are more susceptible to metal marking than dark coatings. Metal marking typically occurs during forming operations.
Orange peel—a paint imperfection where the surface resembles the skin of an orange; also surface roughening on formed products resulting from the use of coarse-grained material.
Red rust elimination —residue from the corrosion of steel consisting of iron (ferric) oxide. The oxide is reddish in appearance (rust colored). Red rust may also manifest itself on galvanized steel. In this case, the protective zinc coating has been completely corroded exposing the underlying steel. Caused by the exposure of steel or iron to moisture.
As referenced by the variety of imperfections above, incorrect parts happen for many reasons. Many imperfection can be discovered with proper quality checking procedures. These types of procedures can be as advanced as looking through complex microscopes and can be as simple as spotting imperfections with plain eyesight. What is most important is that you have a system in place to catch imperfections and you know how to remedy them to a more perfect part.
How Does Electropolishing Cure Imperfections?
Electropolishing is a subtractive process which removes material from the service of your workpiece to create a smoother surface. Small burrs and imperfections are removed during the electropolishing process. Larger burrs produced in rough milling or displaced metal from drilling operations often need pretreatment using other methods.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized on July 24, 2014 by danvoell.
In the past we have detailed some of the reasons for quality minded food industry companies to electropolish equipment, here is one more reason. A recent report from UltraClean Electropolish Inc in Food Engineering Magazine points to the fact that electropolishing can reduce the time it takes to clean your equipment.
For one, electropolishing creates a smoother surface which means there is less space for food to get caught in hard to reach areas. In the report, due to the typical cleaning time saved, the company was able to recover the costs of electropolishing on their food industry equipment in less than 90 days. Not only does electropolishing lead to less cleaning time, it leads to less possible food contamination since there is less space for food to be left behind.
Let Classic Electropolishing help out with your next food equipment project.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized on June 19, 2014 by danvoell.
Classic Electropolishing enjoys seeing all types of high quality electropolishing equipment. Are you looking for equipment or do you have equipment that you are looking to get rid of, contact us today and we will see if we can help. In the past we have dealt with used electropolishing equipment from ESMA as well as custom made used electropolishing equipment. If you need help setting up equipment or if you have equipment that you are auctioning off or liquidating, contact us today.
Classic Electropolishing does our own in-house electropolishing and we also coach companies on how they can set up their own in-house electropolishing process.
Here are a few more electropolished goods directly off the rack. Electropolishing threads can cause difficulties if there are tight tolerances on the minor diameter and pitch of the thread. If you have tight tolerance threads, make sure you are working with an expert electropolisher. At Classic Electropolishing we understand how valuable the machining process is prior to electropolishing. We can keep material removal tolerance to +/- .0001.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized on June 17, 2014 by danvoell.