Aluminum Anodizing Process and Update for re_computer Case.
The re_computer case has been released for a while, we are doing our best to accelerate the delivery of this product. Today, as the product manager of the product, I went to the supplier of anodizing to follow up on the anodizing process and finalized the color of the case.
In this blog and the following video, I will give a simple introduction about the anodizing process of the re_computer case and also the issue that we have met, which might cause delay for the delivery of the product.
As you can seen in the video, we met some issues during the anodizing process, it will take some time to debug and fix the problem. There might be another delay for the re_computer case. We apologize again for the delay and will try to solve the problem as soon as possible. Also, we will keep you updated.
Note
We will refund store coupons via an email to every customer who bought re_computer case with us before April 17th. 2020. Thank you so much for understanding the issue and accident that happened during the aluminum anodizing process.
The original aluminum material.
This is the original material with original aluminum color. It is a long material and can be cut into different lengths. Imagine that a stackable middle layer with this length, and you can put a Raspberry Pi cluster inside.
Sandblasting
After being cut and CNC, it is almost the thing that we need, but without color, so the next step is anodizing. Before anodizing, there is a pre-step named sandblasting.
We use the sandblasting to cover the original aluminum material. From the image above, you can tell that the original material does not look very attracting. And here is the part after sandblasting. We will put it on a holder before it is anodized.
The holder
Clean the surface
Before going to real anodizing, there are many different kinds of liquid for some pre-cleaning, and some have the function to make the material more shining.
Anodizing
After those pre-steps, it will be in this big tank for anodizing for more than half an hour, this step will create a thick aluminum oxide film on the surface so that the color molecule to be absorbed on the surface.
Final step: add color to the surface.
The PANTONE number of the color giving by the designer is 7694C, it is a very dark blue We feel that we need to make different blue to choose from, so we made three versions of blue: light-middle-dark.
Since it is super easy for the supplier to make the different colors on the surface, we also made three other colors: green, golden(yellow), and grey. We would like to know your opinion of which color you like or any other colors you want to make it for your case Let us know and discuss with us in the forum.
Some assemblies
The issue happened, but we are looking for solutions
We find that the acrylic to cover is super hard to fit in the case, after checking every dimension, we find that there is distortion. It might because the aluminum material itself has distortion, however, we don’t know yet.
Please also take a look at our blog of Resource Roundup for ODYSSEY – X86J4105. We will keep updating more resources and work we have done on this board. Please stay tuned and feel free to let us know what tests, tutorials, and add-ons you want to see for ODYSSEY – X86J4105! And we are looking forward to more suggestions and reviews from the community!
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