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| Each
part must be fixtured prior to finishing. This makes all the
work done at A.M. Metal Finishing labor intensive and time
consuming; however, it still manages to turn around parts
in 24 hours.
|
It wasn't just
the climate that called Rick Hunter from Canada to Florida; he saw
the wealth of business opportunities growing in the Orlando area.
The area he was most interested in was finishing, particularly anodizing.
He purchased A.M. Metal Finishing, a small anodizing shop, and went
to work.
Mr. Hunter
knew the business simply wouldn't come to his door, so he joined
several associations, including the Manufacturers Association of
Central Florida. This group has more than 100 members and includes
universities and high schools as well as small and large manufacturers
such as Lockheed Martin and Mercury Marine. Presently, Mr. Hunter
is serving as president of the association. "As an active member,
I am able to keep a pulse on what's going on in industry in central
Florida. It also enables me to meet people who may need finishing
work, and A.M. Metal Finishing has a number of services to offer."
Since Mr. Hunter
purchased the company 10 years ago, it has moved from its original
5,000-ft2 facility into a newly built 21,000-ft2 state-of-the-art
shop. The move from the city of Orlando to Orange County wasn't
as simple as transporting the equipment the five or so miles down
the road. "When we moved out here we were treated as if we
were a new company," noted Mr. Hunter. "We had to go through
quite a few hoops just to get permits for the new facility. But
what is really discouraging is that the permitting process and effluent
limits are not the same across the entire state. I think that every
plater should meet the same limits, whether they are in Orange County
or over in Daytona where there is less manufacturing and consequently
less stringent discharge limits."
Also, the company
has ventured into other finishing areas, including powder coating,
chromate conversion coating, electropolishing and some specialty
processes such as Teflon® powder coating, passivation and Turco
cleaning.
The Turco cleaning
is part of another specialized process that A.M. Metal Finishing
offers, titanium anodizing. Turco cleaning to FED-SPEC-O-N-350 is
used prior to anodizing titanium. Titanium anodizing is not run
the same way that A.M. Metal Finishing handles its hard coat or
conventional anodizing. The control parameters are much tighter.
The room-temperature bath is controlled to within + 2F. The titanium
can be anodized in any current-carrying solution. A.M. Metal Finishing
uses an acidic bath. The cathode material is titanium, at a ratio
of 2:1 to the anode material.
A.M. Metal
Finishing anodizes titanium for a number of customers, including
aerospace, medical and decorative markets.
The color of
anodized titanium is produced from interference colors. Anodizing
produces a thin layer of titanium oxide. Light that hits the anodized
part is partially reflected, partially transmitted and refracted
in the oxide film; therefore, several reflections may occur. The
color depends on the thickness of the oxide film. However, unlike
the 19 colors A.M. Metal Finishing offers with its conventional
anodizing, there are only six colors available with the titanium
anodizing.
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| Anodizing
tanks can handle parts up to 16-ft long. Here, only half of
the rack is engaged with parts ready for processing.
|
"We control
the color and thickness by controlling the bath parameters,"
stated Mr. Hunter. "Voltage is probably the most important
parameter to control, but we keep tight control over temperature,
amperage, voltage and the number of parts in the tank at a time.
This is probably the most difficult part of anodizing titanium,
but it is critical, particularly for the medical industry, which
relies on color for identification of different parts. A thickness
difference of only 2 nm can be a big difference in color on the
part"
This ability
to perform highly specialized, critical work, has earned A.M. Metal
Finishing a reputation as a quality finishing supplier. Because
of that, it does a lot of work for the defense industry as well
as high-end decorative markets. "Also, many of our customers
are going to just-in-time. This means we not only have to finish
it correctly with no rejects. We have to do it quickly," stated
Mr. Hunter. "Customers used to drop off 4,000-5,000 parts and
return for them in two or three weeks. Now they drop them off Monday
and want them back Tuesday evening. And they are calling me from
the truck telling me they are on the way!" Of course, with
16-ft tanks, the company can also anodize parts that are quite large.
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| Powder
coating was added to the company's list of services when it
moved to its new facility. Specialized masking is often required
on parts. The company is a licensed Teflon applicator.
|
All of the
processes are labor intensive as well, since this is not a barrel
plating shop. Everything must be fixtured, and many of the parts
require specialized masking, whether it is tape or brush-on maskant.
"The military requests a lot of hard coat anodizing for wear
parts such as those in rifles, bearing surfaces and other military
items. It is a rugged, durable coating with 10 times the wear resistance
of conventional anodizing. Also, it is the second hardest surface
to diamond, with a Rockwell C60 hardness. It also provides excellent
corrosion resistance, which is why the military requests it for
many marine applications. Parts are hard coat anodized and given
a dichromate seal (this limits color choices to clear, black or
olive). The seal adds even more corrosion protection.
Other hard
coat and conventionally anodized parts can be colored any one of
19 colors. "Of course everyone wants us to have 20 colors,"
joked Mr. Hunter. "Just yesterday we had a customer ask for
bright orange. So, we are working on bright orange."
Bright is the
future for A.M. Metal Finishing. As more companies in Central Florida
become aware of its abilities and varieties of finishes, the company
can't help but grow. Its networking also keeps it informed of the
latest trends in business as well as the latest research and technology.
Mr. Hunter made the right choice when he moved to Florida and came
in out of the cold.
