Building up a crazy nice 951 for a customer, and he's requesting a gold anodized ti spring...I have called a dozen companies claiming that they anodize ti, and they all say they can't do it. Any of you guys got any tips or pointers?
Do they say why they cant do it? Wrong ally of titanium or what? I once toyed with the idea of ti-nitriding a ti spring, but was told it's a very brittle coating that would almost instantly fall off, which surprised me.
I think a powdercoat is the only way to get that gold...like a steel spring. I've seen gold-ish titanium, but springs are difficult since they compress and move.
Methinks your customer needs to face the music or deal with a few grams of powder.
I just called a friend that does ano work. He said they wouldnt do a spring because of the constant moving, not becasue of the ti. He said they could do it, but it wouldnt last long and would look bad for their business. He does ano ti. Hes got a bunch of anoed ti bits on his dirtbike.
rust-o-leum....seriously, not anodizable and powdercoat will just check and crack. Just paint it, ride it, rinse and repeat.
Edit: I use two anodizers in SoCal, neither do Ti as they are set up to do Aluminum and can't mix materials.
Anodizing isn't brittle, but it is an etching and Ti's surface is about as hard as it gets for alloys.
I dont buy it by the way, I'm sure anodising isn't brittle, it shouldn't matter that the spring is springy. You get anodised ti spokes and they flex plenty, does the colouring fall off of them too? It's a surface treatment, not a coating, it should cope with movement just fine. No?
Titanium anodizing and aluminum anodizing are quite different. To simplify, alum anodizing is a porous oxide layer. This layer is dyed, and then sealed.
Ti ano is also an oxide layer, but the oxide isn't porous so it can't be dyed. The colors you see on the spokes are you only options as they are naturally occuring based on the voltage(?) of the charge used to develop the oxidization.
Ti ano is actually pretty easy to DIY. I did it in my basement as a kid with stuff we had laying around. All you need is a voltage controller and some electrolyte.
The closest you can get to gold with Ti is that yellow.
Ouch, I read a how to on MTBR, some guy did it for like $12 himself with easter egg die and battery acid, figured it wasnt that hard, maybe I'l go that route over the winter or something.
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