Plating surgical instruments

[khizrs]

I am not sure where this should go, please move if necessary.

We buy surgical instruments that have a black finish in, or we get a company to black finish them,

does anyone here know how this process is done, as we would like to start producing them in house?

Thanks!

[CarWiz]

I would think surgical instruments would be polished to reduce the posibility of contamination but I couldn't say it any better than EPI.

Black Oxide is a blend of caustic, oxidizers, additives that is used to black oxide ferrous metals. There are two types of metal blackening: hot black oxide and room temperature blackening.

Hot black oxide is a conventional hot (285 F°) process which produces a true black oxide iron magnetite, Fe3O4, finish. It is a premium grade salt mixture which will blacken a wider range of steel alloys than any other process on the market.

Room temperature blackening is the preferred metal blackening process for safe and convenient in-house blackening. It is important to note this is not a true black oxide process; however, it may be referred to as room temperature black oxide. It produces a super deep blackness and corrosion resistance equal to hot oxide blackeners. It is an excellent non-bleed out black finish for powdered metal and cast iron. Room temperature blackening process is an autocatalytic reaction of a black selenium-copper compound that deposits on ferrous parts through an immersion process.