Clear hard anodize finishing (mythical)

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Mythical Specifications

Once in awhile, I’ll run across a requirement to use a specification that isn’t physically possible.  Something I see from time to time is the request to apply the specification of a clear hard anodize finish to the drawing of an aluminum part.  This makes me chuckle (unless the requester is thoroughly convinced that this mythical beast really exists).

A hard anodize (Type III) finish is intended to provide wear and abrasion resistant surfaces with improved corrosion protection due to greater thickness and weight than common anodizing (Types I and II).  The goal when using hard anodizing is to have a wear index of 1.5mg/1000 cycles, according to MIL-A-8625F.

An anodize finish on an aluminum part is achieved by growing an aluminum oxide layer on its surface using direct current through an electrolytic solution, with the aluminum object serving as the anode.  The current releases hydrogen at the cathode and oxygen at the surface of the aluminum anode, creating a build-up of the aluminum oxide.   The voltage required by various solutions may range from 1 to 300 V DC, although most fall in the range of 15 to 21 V.

Common methods apply an aluminum oxide layer that is .00002 – .001″ thick.  A clear appearance remains as the thickness approaches .0006″ thick.  Thicker than that, the layer darkens to a bronze, gray, or black color (depending on the purity of the aluminum substrate).  At .0017″, the color is very pronounced.  Hard anodize specification calls for .0020″ (+/-20%) thickness.  This is far above the point where the anodizing process produces a colored finish.   Another factor is that of temperature during the process.  Hard anodizing requires the process to occur as a much lower temperature for the harder surface (higher process temperature = softer surface).  Additional coloration occurs due to the lower temperatures required by the hard anodize process.

Although a balance may be struck between hardness and clearness, the specification of clear hard anodize is not an achievable specification in a strictly technical sense.  Any compromise to get close to this specification is going to have some color and reduction in hardness or durability.

Reference: MIL-A-8625F (.pdf)

Tuesday Two: Nano Power Power

Tuesday Two

mPhase's nanobatterymPhase’s superhydrophobic porous silicon membrane nanotechnology based battery is much smaller and lasts longer traditional batteries.

 

Offshore-Windpark Lillgrund - Öresund-Brücke / Lillgrund OffshorLet’s replace off-shore oil rigs with off-shore wind farms!  Many Siemens AG wind turbines are found the Lillgrund Wind Farm, located about 10 km off the coast of southern Sweden.

 

 

Mythical creations

This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series Mythical Specifications

Engineering sometimes calls for the use of the specification called unattainium.  In other words, at times there is just no easy way to find the balance between design requirements and reality.  Other times, someone isn’t knowledgeable enough to make certain specifications, so they come up with specs that may sound right, but aren’t real.  Anyone ever run into a set of parts that were designed with all the mating features being line-to-line?  How many of us have searched high and low for a “black alodine” finish?  Another mythical metal finish is “clear hard anodize”.  I’m going to cover some of these points in future articles.  For now, I’d like to see other misspecifications that people have experienced in the engineering field.  Please comment about what you’ve seen.

What silly drawing workarounds are you using?

Melissa Appel, DS SolidWorks Product Definition Specialist, started an engaging forum thread on the SolidWorks Forum.  She invites SolidWorks users to answer the question:

What are the silliest workarounds you use in drawings, and what is the actual goal?

To date, there are 124 responses.  Most comments cover one or more particular cases where a silly workaround has to be used in order to acheive desireable results.

There are many topics covered.  Several comments are about well covered (and mostly resolved) topics, like the elimination of the Dimension Palette.  There’s a few solutions to problems some users experience.  Other topics cover little problems, like the fact that a user is forced to double-escape from the Ordinate Dimension command before a new set ordinate dimensions can be started.  Then there are big topics, like the fact that SolidWorks doesn’t provide any method to break dimension extension lines around other leaders and extension lines (unless they are actually cross through an arrow).

There’s a lot of good information in the forum thread, but I’m sure there are a great number of topics to cover!  Check our the forum thread and add your own or comment on existing topics.

Label Views +

[This article is outdated.  The macro is no longer available.  SOLIDWORKS has enhanced view label capabilities in subsequent releases, starting in SOLIDWORKS 2014.  Please see current SOLIDWORKS Help for more information.]

If you have ever needed to add a label to a standard drawing view, you know it takes a few steps to get it to look like the section view labels.
Maybe you’ve added a note but accidently had the wrong view selected. Now when you move the view the note doesn’t move with that view. I hate that, and it takes time to fix.
Have you ever wanted to add some text to a balloon so that if you move the balloon the text moves with it? That’s done with the Group tool, but why not make it automatic?
All of the above is made easier with the revised Label Views macro.
Label Views is designed to help you quickly add formatted text to existing SolidWorks Views or replace an existing View Label (if desired), also automatically group text to existing Note Objects.
SolidWorks does not provide View Labels for Standard Projected Views. Label Views can add formatted text, to any SolidWorks View.
Label Views can replace-hide the default (mono-format) SolidWorks Section/Detail View Labels with multiple formatted text. However, the new Notes are “dumb” SolidWorks Notes and will NOT update if the Document Annotations format or the View Scale is changed after the Note is created.
Label Views can automatically group new text to existing Note Objects. This can allow you to keep the SolidWorks automatically updated Labels and add grouped text to it.
The “Model Links & Symbols” buttons provide a list of Model Links and Symbols you can choose from to add to the Note text. You can alter these lists to suit your needs by editing this open source macro.
This version is a complete rewrite of the code (all previous functionality is preserved, except saving User Preferences in the Windows Registry).
The .zip file contains LabelViews.swp for SW 2007 and LabelViews.dll with all the folders & files for SW 2010 32-bit.
Label Views (3.01) is available at http://sw.fcsuper.com/index.php

Thanks

Senseless Sunday: fruitville

 

 

  • If a raisin is dropped into a glass of fresh champagne, it will float and sink over and over.

 

  • From 1923 to 1969, Illinois had a law making American their official language[1].

 

  • After Canada and Mexico, Russia is the nearest neighbor to the United States, via Alaska.  In the middle of the Bering Strait, Russia’s Big Diomede Island and the U.S.’s Little Diomede Island are only two miles apart.  “I can see Russia from my house.”