The increasing utilization of aluminium alloys today across many industries including Aerospace, Aircraft, Automotive, Transportation Equipment and Building and Architecture will continue to see growth since the benefits of utilizing lighter weight materials that provide good strength properties.

All types of aluminium alloys benefit from some type of chemical processing to provide an important property including hardness, abrasion resistance, colour, bonding of organic coatings, corrosion resistance or simply a visual impact to the surface of the part or component.

Today, parts and components for systems made from aluminium alloys are processed with anodizing, chemical conversion coatings, paint or other organic coatings to provide an important application property. These include protecting their surfaces from corrosion in service, or delivering good adhesion bonding of an important layer over the aluminium or to impart a decorative finish to the surface. For Architectural applications where the finish must be maintenance-free for several decades and for Aerospace/Aircraft applications there is only one opportunity to make it right the first time, it is critically important to provide the correct surface preparation for the alloy.