Black Oxide Treatment for Stainless 1

[Designer99]

Does anyone know of a Westcoast (preferably WA or OR) vendor that does black oxide treatment of stainless. Or does anyone know any other "tricks of the trade" for coloring stainless steel black? I am speaking primarily of 303 and 304 S/S. I've tried painting (after passivation) but the paint chips off easily. Thanks!

 

[swall]

Since black oxide will degrade the corrosion resistance of the stainless, you have to ask yourself why the part needs to be stainless in the first place. You may be just as well off with a black nitride, such as Kolene's QPQ, on carbon steel.

 

[unclesyd]

I would give these people a call as they did have shops on the West Coast that used their products. I've used their products with excellent results on SS with no real detriment to the SS properties.

http://www.heatbath.com/Products-link-page.htm

 

[tripleZ]

Give IonBond a call. They put a sort of black PVD coating on some stainless steel parts for us. To warn you, it's proprietary, so they won't tell you the mix. It's also expensive, and I believe they only run limited production runs of it, so that may be limiting to you.

 

[kenvlach]

The

http://www.namf.org

Products/Service locator only lists one black oxide shop in OR or WA (of course, non-members of NAMF exist):

Asko Processing, Inc.
434 N 35th St
Seattle, WA 98103
Phone: (206) 634-2080

Their process listing includes Black Oxide on Stainless:

http://www.askogroup.net/companies/asko-processing/overall.html

Alternatives if this processor doesn't work out:

1) Black chromium plating. MIL-DTL-14538D CHROMIUM PLATING, BLACK (ELECTRODEPOSITED). Durable & corrosion resistant; often used for solar collectors.
2) Black nickel plating. Thin, goes over a nickel underplating, mostly for optical properties. Can be lacquered.
3) Do-it-yourself room temperature blackening. Not a black oxide, but rather a coating of black CuS or CuSe. Needs a wax, oil or lacquer for protection. Some of the hot black oxide chemical suppliers (see below) also sell, but perhaps the 2 largest US suppliers are EPI & Birchwood-Casey:

http://www.epi.com/black-oxide/steel-zinc-aluminum-blackening.html

“Insta-Blak SS-370”

http://www.birchwoodcasey.com

[I'm not sure if they have a product for stainless, but ask].

Products Finishing listing of Blackening chemical suppliers:

http://www.pfonline.com/dp/pfd/byzone/SuppliersDatabase_Detail.cfm?ID=1130 &zntype=PLAT

Some earlier threads of possible interest:
Blackening
thread798-86272

Black Oxide Coating Specification
thread723-56683