Black HA Vs. HA NAT

Let supposed these were 2 Brand New lights, One was Black Type III HA and the other was Type III HA NAT.

I have found that The Black HA Anodizing shows scratches, bumps, scuffs, etc more than the Natural Anodizing.

Is this true for you CPFers too?

Or Is Black HA III weaker?

Thanks :green:

HA3 annodizing is a two steps procedure:

1- hard annodize bath
2- dyeing

Right from the bath all HA3 parts are natural, then if you want any color it adds to the natural color, thats why colored HA3 is always darkish.

So, to sum it up, scrach resistance is the same, what may be different is how easy you see the scratch, black provides better contrast against bare alu.


Pablo

cute kid pablo (your son, I'm assuming).

Black shows the scratches more but it's also easier to touch up. A sharpie pen works. For something a little more durable, most gun shops have touch up kits for black aluminum finishes.

Perhaps this is one of those YMMV, but I have found that adding dye to anodizing weakens it and the hardest coats I have seen have been HA NAT.

Bogus1 said:

Perhaps this is one of those YMMV, but I have found that adding dye to anodizing weakens it and the hardest coats I have seen have been HA NAT.

Click to expand...

I understand this to be the case. By adding dye to HA you are filling the pores which then can not crumple and so the substrate fails and is exposed sooner.

The weakest points for HA are the sharp corners, edges and breaks in slope due to HA being a growth perpendicular to the substrate and therefore thinnest at these points.

It is likely that wear to coloured HA is more obvious as well.

Certainly in my experience coloured HA appears to wear faster compared to the same product in natural HA.

Al

SCblur said:

cute kid pablo (your son, I'm assuming).

Click to expand...

Yes, my kid, thanks!

Regarding HA3, its true that it goes away faster on sharp edges. To get the picture clearer think about the anno layer as hair that grows perpendicular to the surface, if an edge is rounded you will see a continuos filling with hair, but if the angle is sharp (say 90deg) you will have no hairs in the oposite corner of this angle.

Check this image and you will understand it better




Pablo

PEU said:

HA3 annodizing is a two steps procedure:

1- hard annodize bath
2- dyeing

Click to expand...

If this is so, then is it possible that the scratch is only in the 'dye' layer and not in the 'HA' layer? I don't have any scratched to look at (and I am NOT going to scratch one to find out).

The dye fils the microscopic gaps in the "hairs" then its sealed, there aren't two layers


Pablo

Thanks for the info guys.

clears up some confusion.

Pablo, that is very interesting - it explains it very well and I understand it better now. A follow-up question: when the dye fills in the microscopic gaps between the "hairs", does this actually weaken the structure of the individual hairs? Are the dye molecules too large to fit properly between them, and the result is the hair structure is disrupted?

As I understand it when the gaps are filled the HA growth acts more like a solid transferring any force applied to it straight down to the aluminium alloy substrate. Since the aluminium is soft it gives way and the HA above is damaged exposing the aluminium.

When the dye is not used the HA is able to crumple under a force applied absorbing the energy rather than transferring it to the aluminium below. As a result the aluminium is not exposed but the HA is marked.

Al

I found this image of an annodized surface, it was generated using a SEM (scanning electron microscope)




Pablo

Yuck Pablo, raises my hairs!!! Oh no I can't help looking at the image.

Great shots, that clears up a lot about HA and HA NAT