More than 115 anodizing industry professionals attended the 2008 International Anodizing Conference and Exposition held Tuesday, October 28 through Thursday, October 30, 2008 at the Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, California. Delegates attended General Sessions, Focus Sessions, the Delegate Network Event and had the option to attend one of two plant tours and a golf outing.

The General Sessions on Wednesday included several presentations including, Purification and Recovery of Anodizing Baths and Bright Dip Rinse Water by Paul Pajunen, of Eco-Tec Inc.; Trivalent Chromium Seals for Anodic Coatings by Danielle Rosenquist, Director of Product Development for METALAST International, LLC; Improving Anodize Wear and Corrosion Resistance by Combining Modified Electrolyte Chemistry with Advanced Waveform Pulse Ramp Technology by Fred Schaedel of Alpha Process Systems and A Comparison of Etching Processes: Alkaline, Mechanical, and Acid Etching of Aluminum by Wayne Chandler of SIC Technologies.

The General Session on Wednesday also included the AAC Awards of Excellence. The Robert L. Kersman Award of Excellence for best paper at the 2007 Anodizing Conference was awarded to David Whedon, Technical and Sales Manager for AACOA, Inc. and the Donald I. Johnson Award for best presentation at the 2007 Anodizing Conference was awarded to Mark Jozefowicz of Reliant Aluminum Products, LLC. For more on the AAC Awards of Excellence click here.

Delegates to the 2008 Anodizing Conference also had the opportunity to visit one of two area anodizing facilities: PK Selective in Santa Clara or 2Dye4 Anodizing in Rohnert Park on Wednesday, October 29, 2008.

On the tour to P.K. Selective in Santa Clara, 21 delegates were treated to a visual history of how owner Peter Kellett developed his techniques of splash anodizing, industrial anodizing, and graphic anodizing. Peter displayed 25 years’ worth of artwork, demonstrating the progression of his techniques over time.

In all, 36 delegates took part in the tour of 2Dye4, a start-up facility located about an hour north of San Francisco. The tour participants divided into three groups. While one group explored the interior space that houses the overhead crane above the space designated for the 12-foot tanks, another group viewed the closed-loop water-treatment equipment located behind the building, and the third group gathered in the front office to learn of the trials and tribulations of launching an anodizing operation from scratch.

The Focus Sessions conducted on Thursday, October 30, 2008, included the Practical, Theoretical, and Academic tracks. The Practical Track included topics on job and captive shop requirements; advances in the way anodizing solutions can be filtered, purified, and agitated, and an architectural perspective on quality control in anodizing. The Theoretical track featured topics relating to racking concepts, automatic raking and a case study on the Ploytetrafluoro Ethylene, e.g. Teflon® (PTFE) coating process. Effect of Extrusion Microstructure on Formation of Streaking Defects on the Surface of Anodized Aluminum Extrusions, A New Phase Space Interpretation of the Formation of Anodic Oxide Films and Effect of Microstructure of AlMg0.8Cu and AlMg0.7Si on the Optical Quality of Anodic Film were the three presentations included in the Academic Track.

After the Focus Sessions on Thursday, a brief General Session included a political outlook and Regulatory Roundup from AAC Washington Counsel Charlie Simmons of Thompson & Simmons, PLLC in Washington, D.C., and Interfacial Phenomena & Anodizing: Ramifications and Process Solutions by award-winning Anodizing Conference speaker, Dr. Jude M. Runge of CompCote International. A lunch featuring the popular Technical Q&A Panel Discussion completed the conference.