866.345.5861 |  ISO 9001:2015 Certified

Metal Cleaning, Pretreatment, & Stripping

Abrasive Blasting

AFI has multiple systems to fulfil your blasting needs including a 40' blast booth. We can use a variety of media including silica, crushed glass, and steel grit to prepare parts. Abrasive blasting is important for all coatings and will create an etch on the part for which the coatings to adhere. Blasting also ensures the parts are free of dirt and rust prior to coating.

Stripping

We can help you quickly and economically reclaim parts, paint hooks or other items using a variety of processes like chemical stripping and burn-off. We can remove almost any organic finish, including hard-to-break coatings like epoxy, nylon and E-coating.

Surface Preparation

We can remove residue or minor imperfections to create a suitable base for final finishing. Processes include tumbling, media blasting, de-scale (acid dip), and applying zirconium.

Chromate Conversion Coating

Trivalent Chromium Pretreatment (TCP)
AFI offers this dip process which is a very environmentally friendly system compared to the Hexavalent chromate used previously. This product conforms to MIL-DTE 81706B & MIL-DTL 5541F & ASTM 3359 & 2559-9. This chromating system applies a chemical film of 0.25 microns preventing oxide formation and corrosion. It also provides improved adhesion for subsequent coatings and complies with all european directives (RoHS Compliant).

Large Capacity Pretreatment

We can efficiently prepare large parts or high volume orders for coating with an in-line, 5-stage composite washer (window size: 5' x 3' x 10') or 6-stage composite washer (window size: 5' x 2' x 8').

Oversized Pretreatment

We can effectively pretreat large parts in our Litchfield wash bay. The wash bay is 25' L x 10' W x 9' H and the wands are set up with zirconium or iron phosphate pretreatment. Other pretreatments can be added upon request.