Die Cast Aluminum Housing Cleaning, Deoxidizing and Desmutting

The AlumaPrep^® process was developed to de-smut and deoxidize aluminum castings completely, easily, and controllably. The AlumaPrep^® process has revolutionized production and finishing of aluminum castings that must be oxide and particle-free for their end applications, particularly in finished Hard Disk Drive (HDD) enclosures. AlumaPrep^® process eliminates oxide and cleans parts to achieve previously unobtainable low particulate levels.

Effective and complete, the AlumaPrep® process stands out as being controllable and predictable. Process windows can easily be achieved and controlled. The AlumaPrep^® process controls allow chemical usage until the bath either batch life has been reached or continually run via “Feed and Bleed”. Periodic additions of chemicals extend bath life, a key to reliable, cost-effective and quality finishing.

The AlumaPrep^® process has shown that it can make several standard process steps obsolete. It can in many cases make pre-etching and subsequent conversion coatings completely unnecessary, thus lowering production costs, while assuring consistent high-quality finishes. This process eliminates the need for conversion coatings like Anodizing or Chrome-based conversion coatings.

The AlumaPrep^® process is a simple process that improves bath life and ease of operation. Long bath life minimizes waste treatment issues, which in turn lowers the overall cost of ownership. The AlumaPrep^® process has improved yields and decreased costs in virtually all aluminum casting cleaning applications and is particularly suited for the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) industry.