Professional Gold Color

[sage]

I have a sample card from a professional anodizer on which there is a beautiful gold sample. It is pretty obvious that it is not a dye that they used to achieve this finish. Someone suggested that it is a "conversion coating". I'm not sure that is the correct term but I imagine this as some sort of plating rather than dye. It is extremely bright and transparent, almost like it was gold aluminum and it's a real polished 24k gold color. Sorry I'm not sure a picture would do in this case but I could try.
Does anyone know what this finish might be. It seems like it is something that Caswell could supply - or maybe they already do only in the plating suppplies - not sure. I'm going to assume the process must use the same process equipment as anodizing since I doubt this company also does plating.

Any ideas?

Sage

[Canute7]

Hey Sage,
Could it be powder coat? Without a picture it's hard to say. I saw some powder coat that was traslucent gold over super chrome that looked good.Check out Caswell's powder coating, look under Metallic Powder Coatings, click on Mayan Gold,go to where it says Home >> powder coating pics, click on then search for "translucent gold". Hope this helps, Canute

[RedRiver]

I'm sure its probably a dye. One could achieve a near gold plate look. I would think that the best charactersitics to do so would be the 6061T6 aluminum polished a mirrior finish. Of course you would skip the etching step on the anodizing line and because its 6061T6 you could skip the desmut step as well. Anodize at a low current density and dye with one of Clariant's gold dyes (probably "Fast Gold" or "Gold S") or US Specialty Color's dyes ("Fast Gold LN"). It may also be a blend of dyes. I know when using the old Clariant AluPrint silk screening dyes if you blended 14% Yellow, 3% Red and 83% Reducer you could almost fool a jewler into believing it was gold plated (from a short distance of course).

The key is a good polished finish and the right choice of dye. But then again, I may be way off base here. As I stated above, without seeing your sample hands-on, it is difficult to tell...

I've been wrong before and will be wrong again...

My $0.02.
- Dan

[sage]

First off you'll note I had the Caswell sys op change my on-line name to just SAGE instead of CaswellSage. I was thinking it might be interpreted that I was someone from Caswell since some of the Caswell people have Caswell in their names.

Ok I've tried to take pictures of this gold I talking about. Actually I was mistaken, it's the BRASS sample that I'm trying to get not the gold - although the gold is really nice too.

The brushed finish sample is the one that looks so much like a plating becasue it is so transparent. The pictures really don't capture it but I attached them anyway. The satin version on the same sample card (no picture) does look more like a dye and I guess it's probably the same process, so you are probably right it is a dye. So the question is how do they get it so transparent and bright looking like it's not ON the metal but it IS the metal?
I'm only going by the crappy gold dye I have around here which is about as much like gold as gold paint is. If you know what would give me this bright brass color (or even the gold) I'd be glad to know. I want to use it right away.

Sage

[RedRiver]

If you shortened the anodizing process which in turn reduces the thickness of the anodized layer, you can achieve a more transparent color. Atleast this has been my experience...

- Dan

[sage]

Ok. That I can use that tip once I find the right dye. My problem is the getting the particular dye to use I guess. Like I mentioned the gold dye I have is more like a golden yellow. Does Caswell sell a gold/brass that might come out like the picture i.e. REALLY brassy and transparent like plating?

Sage

[blackcote]

I'd also be interested in achieving this color also. I concurr with sage that current dye is golden yellow/orange more than gold. The top row was only ano'd and dyed at half times. The bottom row was full color and full ano'd and is very orange'ish in shade. The customer accepts the top row, but would rather have something like sage's pictures.

[acidrain]

Gold-S is a lot better than just gold. Ano to a .5 build helps too.
Adding a tiny bit of lime green dye to the gold would help knock down the orange-ness.
I've had the same problems... the regular gold I just added to my orange since they turn out exactly the same anyway (then I added some red to make it a brighter orange).

[sage]

Keep the ideas coming guys, I really need to get to the botom of this color. I bought some Caswell GOLD S which I'm going to play with today but after searching the forum pictures I'm afraid it's going to look like what I already have which comes out more like a paint color than like the sample.
I think the picture I sent is the best I can do in a photo but this sample really does look like a plating process, it's just so bright and clear. It's hard to explain. HAving said that, the satin finished sample of the same color does look like anodizing - more like the color is ON the surface.

PS> How did they get the brushed finished. I tried 80 grit paper but it didn't turn out anything like the picture. Whatever they used for grit looks like the grits in it are REALLY sharp!

Sage

[blackcote]

I'm assuming I do have Gold-S as I don't remember having to decide which gold shade to get when I ordered.