Anodisation

What should be observed with anodised components?

Anodising of aluminium components effectively protects against corrosion and enables different surface colours. To avoid damage to the anodised layer, the following tips should be followed:

• Do not use harsh cleaners for cleaning. These can damage the surface. The cleaner used should be tested on an inconspicuous area before it is used on a large surface.
• Avoid exposure to sunlight. Excessive UV radiation leads to fading of the anodised layer. Depending on the colour, fading is more or less visible.
• Do not apply stickers to anodised surfaces. Depending on the adhesive used, parts of the anodised layer may be peeled off when the adhesive is removed and thus damage the surface.
• Avoid high temperatures. High temperatures >60°C can damage the anodised layer and should be avoided.

If these instructions are observed, a long service life of the anodisation is guaranteed.

Which anodised colour should you choose?

The anodisation is a difficult and complex process or better said: “are several difficult and complex electrochemical processes”. Despite dozens of quality controls it is still hard to reach a perfect level of repeatability. Here we are presenting typical phenomena that we consider acceptable and at the same time we would like to give you some advice and information you should know to pick the optimal color for your usage.

Having repeatable colors is complicated, this is the reason why most of the manufacturers cannot guarantee 100% color repeatability, you will find two examples in the displayed pictures that we consider acceptable, once mounted on the bicycle it is hardly impossible to observe the differences but placed directly together we can observe a slightly difference in the color matching. If you want to avoid this phenomenon, then you should stick to silver and black parts.

Few fine silver dots can be seen on the surface of the anodised parts, despite all the precautions taken in the manufacturing steps during the parts transfer from one processing bath to another one it is hard to avoid this phenomena and it may occur. If you want to avoid this phenomenon, then you should stick to silver and black parts.

The anodised colors are not perfectly UV resistant and the color may change with the time if the UV exposure is important. If you want to avoid this phenomenon, then you should stick to silver and black parts.

Last but not least, the pigments used in the anodised colors are not 100% eco-friendly. If you want to act eco-friendly  you should better pick the silver color that is not using any kind of pigment. By the way, we hope we are going to sell silver parts only in the near future to our eco-conscious customers…