What is PEO?
Plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) is an electrochemical surface conversion treatment which can be applied to any of the alloys of aluminium, magnesium or titanium, as well as to a number of other less common metals.
Metal components are exposed to a liquid electrolyte, and an electrical potential is applied to form an oxide-based ceramic. "Sparks" or "discharges" are used to modify the ceramic. There are many such processes, and almost as many different names including "spark anodising" and "Micro-arc oxidation" (MAO). Some of these processes date from the 1950s and have seen little or no development or progress, whilst others remain limited to laboratory tests.
What is unique about Keronite's PEO?
Keronite is the only globally deployed and commercial proven version of the PEO technology is the world's most advanced electro-chemical surface treatment for light alloys. The Keronite process is the result of years of intensive research, industrial experience, and customer application focussed development. Keronite's technology offers unrivalled levels of process control. We have a very wide range of industrially and commercially proven solutions, vast experience of application engineering, and consistently deliver advanced technology solutions to the world's industry leaders.
In the Keronite PEO process, the discharges are controlled to durations of just tens of milliseconds, and currents of just tens of milliamperes are used to initiate micron-sized plasma reactors with localised temperatures of ~17,000 K. These micro-reactors incorporate elements from the metal surface, as well as carefully controlled chemical additions from our proprietary electrolytes. Unique ceramic compositions result from this, allowing us to tailor the ceramic surface layers to meet the customer's requirements of wear resistance, corrosion protection, dielectric strength, thermal protection or a wide range of other needs.
Keronite's PEO process can make the surface of soft metals like aluminium or magnesium harder and more wear resistant than steel or glass...
It delivers excellent corrosion protection - even better than the old chromate based coatings for magnesium and without the use of any heavy metals, strong acids or VoCs, and that's only the beginning...
To learn more about what Keronite can offer, please have a look at the typical characteristics of Keronite layers, and some of the unique properties of our layers. Above all, however, if you have a problem to solve with an aluminium, magnesium or titanium surface, and conventional technologies like hard anodising can't solve it, please talk to our applications engineers or sales people. Contact us at info@keronite.com or call your local office, details of which are on our contacts page