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US 6,579,439 B1Granted
Electrolytic aluminum polishing processes
AssigneeSouthern Industrial Chemicals, Inc.
InventorWayne D. Chandler
Life of this patent
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Abstract
This invention, in one aspect, relates to processes for electropolishing aluminum, in particular, aluminum alloy metal surfaces, by immersing the metal surface in a polishing solution and making the aluminum alloy material anodic. The polishing solution can comprise a phosphoric acid solution and a hypophosphite-containing compound. The polishing solution can also comprise a polyol, a polyol ether and an organic acid.
Claims22
A process for electropolishing an aluminum alloy material comprising the steps of:
- a. providing a polishing solution comprising by weight:
- i. from about 55% to about 90% of a phosphoric acid solution, wherein the phosphoric acid solution comprises from about 60% to about 100% phosphoric acid;
- ii. from about 0.2% to about 20% of a hypophosphite-containing compound,
- wherein components i. and ii. are measured out of a total of 100% polishing solution;
- b. applying a mechanical force to the polishing solution, thereby providing an agitated polishing solution;
- c. immersing the aluminum alloy material in the polishing solution for from about 2 minutes to about 60 minutes;
- and
- d. making the aluminum alloy material anodic by applying a DC current concurrently with the immersing step;
- thereby providing an electropolished aluminum alloy material.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.