TITANIUM ANODIZING

Industry Focus: Medical, Aerospace 

Medical Devices Anodized with APT’s Brilliant Titanium Anodizing Process

Medical Devices Anodized with APT’s Brilliant Titanium Anodizing Process

Recent proprietary anodic film process innovations have thrust APT to the forefront of commercial titanium anodizing.  APT achieves high throughput and consistent, brilliant-color quality titanium anodizing.  The most common use of this technology is in medical devices.  See news release on home page.   

Anodized titanium has been used in a recent generation of dental and spinal implants.  The anodic film is composed of a titanium dioxide layer >1 µm in thickness and up to >2.5 µm compared with much less than 1 µm for un-anodized specimens.  Titanium anodic films cannot be made thicker than about 300nm.  Standards for titanium anodizing are given by AMS 2487 and AMS 2488.

Anodizing titanium generates a wide array of colors without using dyes.  This process has been widely accepted to differentiate medical components such as bone screws.  See images below.

 

High Performance Titanium Anodizing for the Medical Industry:

Devices, Spinal & Implant Components, Bone Screws

Different size components are coded by color to assist the surgeon during surgery.  Color is dependent on the thickness of the oxide layer which is determined through precise process control; it is caused by the interference of light reflecting off the oxide surface with light traveling through it and reflecting off the underlying metal surface.  When the wavelengths of the reflected light are out-of-synch with each other, they will cancel each other and the color that is visible will be dark or not visible at all.  This is called destructive interference.  Depending on the thickness of the anodized oxide layer, the wavelengths of the reflected light may follow each other closely and be in-sync.  The wave strength (amplitude) will be increased, and that particular color would appear brighter.  This is called constructive interference.  See diagrams below.

 

A  color strip is displayed below to demonstrate the spectrum of colors available with APT’s breakthrough titanium anodization process.

Contact Anodic Process Technology TODAY to learn how we can provide high-quality, fast delivery, and cost-effective titanium anodizing services for your products. Contact Us

                    METAL FINISHING SERVICES     QUALITY PROCESS CONTROL     CLEANING AND REFURBISHING     ABOUT US     CONTACT US     HOME