Mechanical finishing & post-processing

Bright dipping is a chemical polishing pretreatment that levels microscopic peaks on aluminum to produce a reflective surface before anodizing.

As machined is the baseline CNC condition with no secondary cosmetic finishing.

Bead blasting propels spherical media at a surface to make a uniform satin or matte finish.

Brushing creates a directional grain with abrasive belts, wheels, or pads.

Deburring removes loose or sharp burrs left by cutting, punching, molding, or casting.

Edge rounding deliberately replaces a sharp edge with a controlled radius or broad edge break.

Honing precision-finishes bores with expanding abrasive stones and a controlled cross-hatch.

Lapping is a precision loose-abrasive process used to improve flatness, parallelism, and very fine roughness.

Mirror polishing removes visible directional scratches and buffs the surface to high specular reflectance.

Mechanical polishing progressively removes surface peaks and scratches to produce a smooth glossy surface.

Sand blasting uses angular abrasive to remove scale, rust, and coatings or to create a rough coating-ready surface.

Shot peening bombards metal with controlled shot to create compressive residual stress and improve fatigue and stress-corrosion resistance.

Superfinishing removes grinding peaks from bearing and gear surfaces with very fine abrasive action.

Surface grinding uses a bonded abrasive wheel to generate precise flat surfaces.

Texture finishing creates a controlled pattern on the mold so every molded part replicates it.

Tumbling and vibratory finishing are mass-finishing methods that deburr many small parts together.

Wet blasting, vapor blasting, or vapor honing projects abrasive suspended in water to clean and satin-finish a surface.

Chemical smoothing applies a compatible liquid or vapor solvent to reflow or level selected printed polymers.

Degating removes the runner and gate from a molded or cast part.

Support removal separates sacrificial print structures and cleans their attachment scars.

Surface sealing fills connected pores in printed or cast parts with a compatible resin or sealant.

Trimming removes flash, excess edge material, membranes, or sacrificial tabs.

Vapor smoothing briefly softens the outer skin of compatible powder-bed polymers so surface peaks flow together.