Surface finishing is used to describe a number of industrial processes that can be applied to improve the surface of a manufactured item. The major reason to apply these processes is to improve appearance, improve adhesion or ink wettability, corrosion protection, wear resistance and friction control also are areas where performance can be enhanced by these treatments. In limited cases some of these techniques can be used to restore original dimensions to salvage or repair an item. Generally, surface finishing consists of one of the following:
- Removing material, or reshaping the item
- Adding material to the item's surface, or chemically altering it
Adding and altering
- Blanching
- Case hardening (typically hardening affects the material throughout; case hardening only affects the metal's surface)
- Corona treatment
- Diffusion processes:
- Gilding
- Powder coating
- Painting
- Passivation/Conversion coating
- Plasma spraying
- Thin-film deposition
- Chemical vapor deposition (CVD)
- Galvanization - includes electroplating, electrophoretic deposition (EPD), Mechanical galvanizing, and hot-dip galvanizing
- Sputter deposition
- Physical vapor deposition (PVD)
- Vacuum plating
Removing and reshaping
- Buffing
- Chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP)
- Electropolishing
- Flame polishing
- Gas cluster ion beam
- Machining
- Pickling
- Sandblasting
- Shot peening
See also
- Surface engineering
- Surface science
- HEF Groupe, international Surface Finishing company
