Electropolishing
Electropolishing smoothes, polishes, deburrs and cleans stainless steel. The
process will selectively remove high points on metal surfaces giving the
surface a bright finish.
Conventional mechanical finishing systems can smear, bend, stress or
even fracture the crystalline metal surface to achieve smoothness or brightness.
Electropolishing offers the advantage of removing metal from the surface
producing a unidirectional pattern that is both stress and occlusion free,
microscopically smooth and often highly reflective. Additionally improved
corrosion resistance and passivity is achieved on stainless steel. The
process micro and macro polishes the component. Micro polishing accounts
for the brightness and macro polishing for the smoothness.
De-burring is accomplished quickly because of the higher current density
on the burr, and because oxygen shields the valleys, enabling the constant
exposure of the tip of the burr.
Because the metal component is bathed in oxygen, there is no hydrogen
enbrittlement to the part. In fact, electropolishing is like a stress
relieve anneal. It will remove hydrogen from the surface.
Another benefit is that bacteria cannot successfully multiply on a surface devoid of hydrogen, therefore, electropolishing is ideal for medical, pharmaceutical, semiconductor, and food processing equipment and components. |
