What Is Anodized Aluminum: The Process, Benefits and Applications

Fabricated metal products are known for their strength and uncomparable lustrous appearance. One of the most popular is aluminum, a silvery-white, lightweight metal used in a wide range of products across different industries. Ever heard what anodized aluminum is? Let’s delve more into this process through this blog!

Anodized Aluminum

On top of different promotional product printing methods, finishing techniques complete the manufacturing process that brings custom promotional products to life. The finish of choice can take an ordinary item to extraordinary, combining its purpose with excellent aesthetics.

Anodizing

Anodizing is a metal finishing process that is used to give corrosion-resistant properties to metal surfaces. The electrochemical reaction between the aluminium and the electrolyte creates a thin surface layer of aluminium oxide. This layer forms a protective film on the metal surface, making it more resistant to corrosion.

Aluminum Wall and Desk Plaque

Plaques are everywhere. We often see them fixed on walls commemorating somebody or displaying an artwork that truly adds life to any space.

They can also be found on desktops, a fantastic location to remind someone how much you appreciate their hard work or exhibit a brand design that can be a great conversation starter.

Anodized Aluminum
Anodized Aluminum

Made from aluminum, these wall and desk plaques are definitely an excellent addition to your office – an ornamental piece that can catch the attention of your customers and clients.

The attractive appearance of the material itself makes these plaques a hard-to-ignore piece of your brand that can be placed everywhere, giving your establishment a uniform look and a fun way to reinforce your business in the minds of your target audiences.

Anodized Aluminum

Through anodizing, we can make these plaques stand out even more with brilliant colours and bold designs. It creates an extremely elegant, homogenous and striking aesthetic effect in the eyes of spectators. A wide range of colourings can be obtained with the anodizing process.

You will also love how this process provides an uncompromised level of quality, as it will make the promotional product more resistant to wear and weather conditions. This makes them a perfect promotional giveaway or addition to your custom SWAG box.

Scroll down to learn more about its benefits!

The Benefits

Environmentally Safe

Anodizing is an environmentally safe electrochemical process that converts the aluminum metal surface into porous aluminum oxide, ultimately creating an end product whose finish is more durable and weather-resistant.

Human Health and Satey

It is a safe process that is not harmful to human health. An anodized finish is chemically stable, it will not decompose; is non-toxic, and is heat-resistant to the melting point of aluminum (1,221 degrees F.)

Durability

Most anodized promotional products have an extremely long life span and offer significant economic advantages. It is a reacted finish that is integrated with the underlying aluminum for total bonding and unmatched adhesion.

Color Stability

Exterior anodic coatings provide excellent stability to ultraviolet rays; they do not chip or peel and are easily repeatable.

Aesthetics

Anodizing offers a large increasing number of gloss and colour alternatives and minimizes or eliminates colour variations. Unlike other finishes, anodizing allows aluminum to maintain its metallic appearance.

Ease of Maintenance

Scars and wear from fabrication, handling, installation, frequent surface dirt cleaning and usage are almost non-existent.

Applications

The wide array of aesthetically pleasing colour finishes open up endless application possibilities for brands and companies who anodize products and components in commercial, industrial, and consumer applications, even jewellery and artwork.

Printing On Aluminum

Sublimation

The aluminum surface must be sublimated first with a special polymer that absorbs the colour.

Polymer sublimation is industrially performed at the factory.

Hence, it is impossible to print on this metal alone.

UV Printing

Digital printing is widely used for UV printing on aluminum for souvenirs and gifts.

It involves directly printing UF ink on the aluminum sheet.

Print stability depends on the metal surface – the ink adheres better to matte surfaces than to glossy surfaces.

Is Anodising Right for You?

We are here to offer advice on different printing methods and finishing processes that will fit your budget, time to market and desired results. Talk to our specialist to know more about them and how we can make your promotional products stand out.

The ODM team, together with our design agency, Mindsparkz, ensure that we are always ahead of the game to guarantee that you will get new and innovative products for your marketing campaigns and promotions.

We’ve been helping companies with their product design and development needs since 2003. Our diverse approach makes us a great partner for businesses who want a team to manage their projects closely.

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2023-04-21T13:59:06+08:00

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