ABSTRACT
After reading this chapter you should understand: (a) why surface treatment is important and what the three principal forms of treatment are (b) how to choose between mechanical and chemical cleaning and smoothing processes (c) the difference between polishing and electropolishing (d) why surface protection is so often necessary (e) the differences between sacrificial and surface coating protection methods (f) what conversion coatings are (g) what the electroplating process is and how to design components for efficient plating (h) what paints are and how they are applied (i) what vitreous coatings are and where they are used (j) how metallic vapours are produced and why they are used as a coating medium (k) how to spray molten metal onto a surface to salvage it or to produce a surface offering
special properties (l) the way that cladded sheet metals are made by diffusion bonding (m) which surface coatings can be applied successfully to plastic components.
