[R-390] On the subject of manufacturing front panels...

[Michael Murphy]

Tim,

Sure, anodize is sexy, sheds heat, is an excellent insulator and is "harder
than paint". But, you can't hide blemishes, seams and mistakes with anodize.
In fact anodize will tend to bring out imperfections. Hard anodize isn't.
Scratches and dings will inevitably appear and they tend to really stand out
on an anodized panel.

At work we switched from Sherwin Williams paint to powercoat which was fine
but lately the craze is hard anodize. Last week we a got a lot of black hard
anodized chassis that all looked like a million. We built up 10 units and
burned them in. They all came out purple. Woops.

A lot of military manufacturers, especially microwave module houses, prefer
paint. A scratched subassembly can be stripped and repainted or repainted
and rebranded. Paint can actually help a module pass a hermetic test too.

Just a few thoughts..

Mike Murphy WU2D


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tim Shoppa" <tshoppa at wmata.com>
To: <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2005 10:08 AM
Subject: [R-390] On the subject of manufacturing front panels...


Roy reminded me of the subject of front panels... why was
anodizing front panels (black, other colors too) never very
popular for 50's/60's radios?

Something to do with fungus-proofing maybe?

Certainly by the 70's consumer stereo equipment was being
anodized.

Anodizing with engravings can get a bit tricky (with "grown"
thickness smearing out the engravings) but it's gotta be
less of an effect than painting.

Looks like someone with a little bit of patience and a PC could design
up a pretty spiffy R-390/390A front panel using

  http://www.frontpanelexpress.com/material/examples.htm

and get it anodized black or green or bronze (looiks more olive to me)
or whatever, lettered (engraved, maybe silkscreened?), and delivered
for circa $150-$200.

Tim.
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