Light scatter produces the colours and this method of production ensures that the colours obtained are completely fade free.
The majority of metals are unsuitable for electrocolouring, the choice being restricted to cobalt, tin or nickel. Although perfectly satisfactory results can be obtained with tin, processing is more difficult to control, particularly in the darker shades. Deposition can grow to the extent where the pores are difficult to seal and deterioration in a short space of time can result. The tin electrolyte is also highly acidic, which can lead to dissolution and increases the risk of poor abrasion resistance.
With a nickel based colouring solution production of dark bronze is difficult and black is impossible. Therefore Anolok colouring using cobalt is the safest of all the commercially available bronze anodising processes.
History
Anolok colouring was commercialized in the mid 1960's in Japan. LHT was granted an ANOLOK license in 1971 by Alcan International and has processed more Anolok bronze anodising than any company in the world outside Japan.
In 1987 we introduced Japanese "Unicol" colour matching technology into our colour anodising process. This dramatically improves the colour match piece to piece and is the only unit in Europe.
Benefits
In addition to the general anodising benefits (see "anodising") Bronze and black finishes produced by the Anolok method using Cobalt have the following benefits over the alternatives:
| Cobalt deposits evenly with dark colours |
| Cobalt deposits in the bottom 12 microns of the anodic pore |
| pH of the colouring solution does not soften the film |
| QUALANOD specification admittance sealing values can be achieved with dark colours |
Colour Swatch
Example Buildings:
Gracechurch
Street Project.
Rivermill House Project
Sanger
Centre Project