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Customizing Surface Abrading for a Perfect Finish

O.C. Tanner developed a one-stage method for applying different abrasives to both sides of
the medals, medallions and awards it creates...

By Terry Nuttall
Research and Development Engineer
O.C. Tanner Company
O.C. Tanner (Salt Lake City, UT) turns metal into emblematic products: medallions, awards, pins and
other service recognition items. The recent winter Olympic medals are good examples of our end
products. The variety of metals we work with is always expanding. New plating and finishing
materials are continuously introduced. This means we must continually review and update our
manufacturing processes to keep up with the needs of the new materials we deal with.

Designing In Metal
Most of our products are customized and basically begin with a drawing of what the customer wants;
it is very similar to the production of a coin. The approved art rendition is then sent to a CAD/CAM
machine where the design is cut into metal to make a die. One of the most common product die is
about 2 inches in diameter. All die, regardless of size, are made of heat-treatable steel. After the die
is made, a blank piece of metal, be it copper, 10k or 14k gold is pressed into the die with several
tons of pressure to create a relief of the art rendition in the desired metal format. The piece is
removed from the die and scrap is trimmed to the shape of the end product.

Requirements For Plating and Finishing

The front of these emblems must be clean of all surface contamination that may repel plating
materials. The metal must also have a very slight texture to it to give plating materials a good surface
to cling to. There can be no shiny spots. The finish of the base metal must be smooth and consistent
for even plating.

Base materials can be virtually any metal including silver, bronze, copper
and 10 or 14 karat gold. Plating and finishing are added to both create
different surface appearances and also to protect the product. Some
plating finishes include rhodium, roman or antique look, yellow gold, and
antique silver plating. For instance, we might want to add a color tint to
the metal such as green antique. Each plating formula gives a different
finish.

Plating is accomplished by dipping the base

metal into a liquid plating solution. Depending
on the type of plating and the finish desired,
the process could include anything from a
single dip to a multi-step dipping process.
The timing of the dip is also highly dependent
upon the type of finish desired and the base
material plated. Each type of material must
be paired with the steps for the desired finish
Metal die are created from art and then it must be individually processed
renditions, similar to coin
production. The approved art
through the series of steps needed to create
The 2002 Winter Olympic medals
rendition is then sent to a that particular product. are good examples of the type of
CAD/CAM machine where the metalworking and finishing done
design is cut into metal to make a at O.C. Tanner.
die. After our plating process is complete, we may
highlight the final product. To create a special color or appearance
(perhaps give it a shaded look), we may use a special product that is similar to a liquid "toner." This
can give a different appearance with a subtle dark shading or light shading. This is a manual step
and a sponge is used in this process.

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Like any plated metal parts or surfaces across a wide range of industrial applications, the adhesion
of the plating materials to the base metal is key to both the appearance and durability of the end
product. Whether it is one of our medallions or other awards, or a part for an automobile or industrial
tool surface, plating a base metal is the same. It is imperative that the bond between the two is
virtually melded into a single surface, even though they are different materials. To accomplish this
we have experimented with quite a few methods of surface preparation. As I mentioned earlier, how
the surface is prepared is paramount to the degree of success in the surface plating process.

Initial Surface Preparation Becomes A Messy Business

We typically have to do separate processes to make sure our plating
process bonds completely to the surface of the metals. Using a medallion
as an example, an aggressive surface texturing for appearance and
plating needs to be done on one side and on the other, texturing for
plating adhesion must be done with a milder abrasive process that does
not compromise the bas-relief of the design.

Plating is accomplished by
To accomplish this, we used aggressive sandblasting technology on one dipping the base metal into a
side and wet pressure blasting technology on the design side. Wet liquid plating solution. Each
Pressure Blasting is used typically for parts cleaning in a variety of plating formula gives a different
finish.
machining situations, and it did work for our application. However, it was
slow and messy. The wet pressure blasting was operator activated, and there were large units of
used water mixture that had to be disposed of. The two processes (wet and dry blasting), by
necessity, had to be completely separate, and there was a time delay needed to completely dry the
product after wet blasting before it could be presented to the other type of blasting. The affect on the
final product was good, but the excessive time to do the two separate processes, was hurting output.
Our goal was to process 1,000 emblems in an eight-hour shift, and, just from the surface texturing
point of view, this was not happening.

The First Step to a Solution

Our first goal was to find a replacement for the wet pressure-blasting
step that would be equally effective or better on the various metal
surfaces. It had to texture without eroding the images in any way. We
also wanted a technology that would be much faster and cleaner to use.
The second goal was to find a way to combine the two processes:
sandblasting and a more gentle abrasive texturing into a single
production step if at all possible.

MicroBlasting technology appeared to be the solution to the wet blasting Two of the 15 combination
problem. It was also operator activated but much cleaner and a dry blasters at work in one of the
process. It could also be easily automated if needed, which was a plus. several shop areas at O.C.
Tanner.
The process works by selectively blasting a very fine abrasive powder
against a surface. In our case, we started with, 50 micron crushed glass. This was mixed with a
clean dry air jet and propelled at between 30-60 psi through a pencil like stylus tipped with a round
nozzle that had a 0.125-inch orifice. The process required a dryer, dust collection and filtration unit,
but we already used that type of equipment for the sandblasting process, so it did not pose a
problem.

Modifying Two Technologies In-House For a Real Fit

Although the MicroBlasting technology fit our needs, we were not
completely satisfied with the initial abrasive powder we tried and found
others that suited our finishing applications better. We presently use
aluminum oxide, which is a little more aggressive, and glass beads,
which produce an entirely different peened surface texturing. We also
found that the best blast pressure for our applications runs around 60-80
psi using these abrasives. However, on the negative side, we soon saw
that this new media plugged up our micro nozzles quite a bit. As a
solution, we simply opened up the orifice in the nozzle a little more and
the process worked extremely well. The custom blasting workstation
uses the primary parts of both the
MicroBlasting and sandblasting
MicroBlasting technology cleaned all the systems so both can be used in
various types of metal we use. It removed all one single process step.
oxides and surface impurities and also
created an evenly textured surface that the different platings adhered to

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very well. The more aggressive sandblasting worked equally as well on

the reverse side of medallions to provide a special look to the metal
finish.

The new system uses several
different types of custom
fixturing. Both gentle abrasive
and more aggressive surface
blasting are operator activated as
needed.
one step for disposal.
Both types of blasting had their own separate work chambers, but neither
was just what we wanted. Our desire was to create a one-piece flow;
therefore, we built our own blasting workstation out of PVC using the
primary parts of both the MicroBlasting and sandblasting systems. The
result was a single unit that gave us MicroBlasting technology to provide
the gentle abrasive cleaning and texturing on the design surface of the
metal and sandblasting technology to provide the more aggressive
abrading of the backside of the product's metal surface. With our custom
fixturing, the resulting units now allow us to spray the gentle abrasive
media on one side of an array of medallions, push another button and
abrade the backside with the more aggressive type of blasting. The
filtration unit carries away the mixed abrasives from both processes in

From this one step blasting station, the medals, medallions, awards or any type of metal product we
make moves to the appropriate plating and finishing process step as described earlier.

Meeting and Exceeding Our Goal

Today, we have approximately 15 of our customized MicroBlaster/sand blaster combination units in
our main facility and more in our Canadian plant. We do also use MicroBlasting technology for
different types of "aesthetic" surface finishing at times, such as peening metal with the glass bead
media for a satin finish, but basically it is used to make sure our platings adhere to all the different
metal surfaces we use. It does that job very well.

We are currently running batches of 10-15 units at a time through our blasting process stations. I
estimate that our overall production has gone up by 30-40% because of the reliability of the
MicroBlasting process combined with the substantial time we saved by in-house customization;
combining two process steps into one unique piece of production equipment.

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