Ideas for color filling white on a red anodized electrical plate

[Delbert Rippetoe]

I have a customer that wants me to engrave and color fill 1/4" tall electrical circuit ID's on a red anodized electrical plate. I currently do this for red on white plates and it works ok. I tape the plate, engrave it, sandblast it, spray paint and then remove the tape. With the white it does not fill well, looks very blotchy. I thought about trying to apply a primer before the paint but this is already a fairly labor intensive task and if anything I would like to remove some time from the process.

Does anyone know of a better product for color filling white or any thoughts/ideas on how to get these numbers on the plates would be appreciated (must be durable).

Thanks,
Deeb

[Rodne Gold]

Lasering red anodising will give a white colour...

[Mike Null]

I agree with Rodney. Why bother when just properly lasering them will do what you want.

[Delbert Rippetoe]

They would like it to be a bright white. I will try just lasering lightly. I am now burning it off leaving the bare aluminum.

[Mike Null]

Delbert

Welcome to the forum. Will laminated plastic do the job? What would cause the wear on the anodized surface?

[Delbert Rippetoe]

Do you mean for the electrical plate itself? Not sure I am understanding the quetions.

Thanks!

[Mike Null]

I usually use laminated plastic for electrical plates that's why I wondered about using anodized for the job.

[Delbert Rippetoe]

The plates are manufactured and supplied by the customer so I believe I am stuck with these.

Thanks

[Richard Rumancik]

. . . I tape the plate, engrave it, sandblast it, spray paint and then remove the tape. With the white it does not fill well, looks very blotchy. . . .

Does anyone know of a better product for color filling white or any thoughts/ideas on how to get these numbers on the plates would be appreciated (must be durable).

If you need a better paint than the spray paint maybe you could investigate pad print ink. It is quite durable and a hardener could be added if needed. Since these plates are all different, you can't actually pad-print. However, the ink that is used is quite thin but covers quite well even if the paint layer is less than .0005" thick. You could probably air-brush it on; maybe even "dab" it on with a foam brush. It would need a bit of R&D.

However your problem will be getting small quantities of ink. You probably don't want to buy a litre at a time ($50-$100). You might find a place that would supply a sample but if you can find a pad printer that will help you he might work with you and decant a few hundred millilitres for $25 or so. The pad printer would be able to supply the ink most suitable for aluminum and thin it as needed. (There are many types of ink depending on substrate.)

You might have to experiment with different masks. Do you think it is necessary to sandblast after lasering? I'm not saying it is bad, but have you found it is necessary? Maybe with pad print ink you could skip that step; I'm not sure.

[Delbert Rippetoe]

Interesting thought.

Has anyone tried the white cermark. I thought about removing anodized surface to bare aluminum and then removing from engraver spraying with the white cermark and then putting back in laser and engraving. Has anyone used the white? I am not real crazy about setting up to remove covering and then having to put back in to engrave. Wouldn't be too bad if the engraving was the same on all pieces?

I appreciate all of the input/suggestions.

[Mike Null]

The white cermark will not work. You'll get a better image with a properly engraved anodized.

[Delbert Rippetoe]

So, what settings are you using and should all red anodized surfaces turn an off white when properly engraved?

Thanks

[George M. Perzel]

Delbert;
Try Elmers white wood filler-bright white and excess wipes off easily.
Best Regards,
George
Laserarts

[AL Ursich]

This would be a perfect job for the Direct Color DCS1024UV LED UV Printer that prints white ink on a flatbed.

You might consider outsourcing that version of the plates or dropping $30K into the printer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9onPK1CtDY

AL

[Michael Hunter]

Engraving anodised aluminium to get the white oxide finish is quite easy.
Start with highish speed and quite low power and then adjust to get the best white.

Too much power will blow away the anodising completely, leaving a bare metal surface which is not so good.


Black anodising usually gives a snowy-white mark.
Red and blue can sometimes be more difficult with a little of the colour remaining to give a slight pink or light blue tinge.
It all depends on the skill and the mood of the anodiser (even the good ones don't manage 100% consistency).

The beauty of doing anodised aluminium is that it is quick and there are no extra materials needed - not even masking tape!

[Rodne Gold]

Where you have directly lasered actually just removes the dye used to colour the anodising , the anodising layer is porous prior to it being sealed , so lasering removes the sealant and the dye.
You can try brighten the anodised area by colour filling with a paint , however that depends on the seal of the surrounding aqnodised area as to whether the paint gets absorbed only in the engraved sections or stains the rest. Not all sealing is the same...

Sandblasting aluminium thru a mask , especially if you use a very fine grit which you would need for fine print , does nothing really. It wont "cut" into the aluminium , it just leaves a grey rougher surface (maybe will cut in slightly if you sandblast for a long long time.
What you could do if possible is laser thru a mask and use caustic soda on the exposed bits (assuming you can mask the rest of the item) , this WILL eat into the exposed areas , even thru the anodising , and then you could get an etch with depth and colour fill , however you may STILL have the issue of the red anodised areas staining.
Scratch engraving , exposing the bright metal substrate will work well too , however , unlike lasering , will remove the protective anodising layer (as does sandblasting and chemical etching)

[Dan Hintz]

I have a customer that wants me to engrave and color fill 1/4" tall electrical circuit ID's on a red anodized electrical plate. I currently do this for red on white plates and it works ok. I tape the plate, engrave it, sandblast it, spray paint and then remove the tape. With the white it does not fill well, looks very blotchy. I thought about trying to apply a primer before the paint but this is already a fairly labor intensive task and if anything I would like to remove some time from the process.

Does anyone know of a better product for color filling white or any thoughts/ideas on how to get these numbers on the plates would be appreciated (must be durable).

Thanks,
Deeb
Normally I would suggest engraving followed by re-dying with your favorite color, but unfortunately this won't work with white (the dye molecules are too large to fit within the pores). That said, the engraving itself should give a nicely contrasting color... a better quality anodizing will provide a clean, white engraving automatically. Here are some pieces I do from time to time... the picture itself sucks, but the engraving is a clean white:

250384

When I am confounded with a poor anodizing layer, then I'll mask with tape and spray a quality automotive-grade lacquer.

[Delbert Rippetoe]

First of all Thanks Rodne and Mike. the white from the light engraving did pass. Makes this job a lot easier. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.

Since that worked so well I thought I would pass along another scenario for everyone.

I have some white powder coated plates that have to be engraved and color filled - Black. I would appreciate some input on how best/most efficient process to accomplish this task. Someone told me that I could actually use cermark on the powder coat, don't believe this work work but I put it out here.

THANKS!

[Mike Null]

Delbert

That is a fairly easy thing to do and you can use acrylic paints or Testors model paints or some enamel for low priced fills. Do not consider Cermark--you'll only pull your hair out.

Paint is the answer.

[Dan Hintz]

Someone told me that I could actually use cermark on the powder coat, don't believe this work work but I put it out here.

This sounds like a recipe for a serious headache, with results that can be easily matched / exceeded with the methods described earlier.

[Mike Null]

I should have elaborated on my Cermark answer. You must engrave the powder coat finish rather deeply to color fill. .015" or more. For Cermark you probably would have to go deeper to get to the bare metal then make sure that's cleaned off well. Cermark must be applied very thinly for best results so the application without puddling would be difficult at best. Your results would be mixed at best and you may stain the white pc in the process.

Paint is just too easy to consider more expensive more problematic Cermark.

[Delbert Rippetoe]

Mike,

Thanks I did not see your response so I added a separate post. Would you just laser through tape and apply paint. That is what I am currently doing but sometimes I get some paint bleed around tape and I am using Photoresist tape. I have been sandblasting after engraving for additional depth for the paint. Do you think this is necessary?

Thanks!

[Mike Null]

Delbert

I would never sandblast. That just adds too much time and expense and provides another opportunity to mess up. I do mask powder coat with transfer paper to keep from scorching the powder coat. If necessary I run a second pass with the laser. Use a paint for which you have a good solvent and one which does not attack the powder coat finish. Acrylic is my choice though most of my work has been in red and the customer did not want a fill.

The panels shown here were only lasered.