'Flexible' Hardcoat?

[jmcjones]

A customer of ours had an aluminum plate hardcoated by a (now unknown) vendor a few years back, and said that it has held up better than anything else they've ever seen. This plate is used in the transfer of a product onto a stainless steel shelf. It tends to get beat around and scratched quite a bit. They say that the coating flexes with the part and doesn't crack. I don't know how to quantify the flex of the piece, but it is not a great amount. I'm looking to make a similar piece for them and I'd like to use this same coating. Does anyone have any idea what it is?
All suggestions appreciated!

 

[alexit]

Look at a hard-anodize, this is a corrosion of the aluminum substrate so it should flex like the aluminum.

Otherwise ee have had good experience flexing with Nyflon (teflon nickle plating) but I think this only works for steel...

 

[TVP]

As alexit said, hardcoat anodizing is the appropriate process for improving the hardness and wear resistance of aluminum surfaces. This is a thicker (35-50 micrometers) version of the cosmetic anodic coatings used on many aluminum applications. Visit the Metalast website for more information:

http://www.metalast.com/technology/research_summary.html

 

[jmcjones]

I had a gentleman in the business have a look at the parts with the coating in question. As you two have said, it was indeed a teflon Hardcoat. I had suggested this to the customer originally, but I was assured that it was something other than hardcoat. My knowledge of coatings is limited so I thought that I may well be wrong in assuming it to be teflon hardcoat.
Thanks for the quick responses!

 

[orangepeel]

For future reference, there are a number of rigid polyurethanes / polyureas that provide good wear resistance. I have used Huntsman's RP 6444 for a number of applications. They claim that it is used as a coating on ore carriers or something similar.