Monitoring of chromium (vi)-free anodized sealing processes and methods thereof

Abstract

A method for monitoring and optimizing a sealing process in situ includes sealing a surface of an anodized substrate, providing a test anodized substrate corresponding to the anodized substrate into the same sealing process as the anodized substrate, measuring an electrochemical surface potential of a test anodized substrate that represents the surface of an anodized part, collecting electrochemical surface potential measurement data, analyzing the electrochemical surface potential measurement data, and identifying one or more performance indicators related to seal quality and processing parameters. The method may include optimizing the sealing process using information obtained from analyzing the electrochemical surface potential measurement data, measuring the electrochemical surface potential using a potentiostat and a reference electrode, and measuring an electrochemical surface potential of a test anodized substrate that represents the surface of an anodized part.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.