[Jon Jack]

You'd be surprised actually. I believe 330 paints their robots, after Atlanta their robots still look good. I'd still prefer powder coating or anodizing over painting though.

Powder coating is where they blast a part(s) to get a new, clean layer of aluminum. Afterwards they spray and epoxy based powder on the part(s) and then bake the epoxy in an oven. The end result is a nice, glossy finish to the part(s). While it's easy to get small micro scratches on the surface, it is pretty resilient to major scratches. We've powder coated both our '07 and '08 competition robots and after the season's over you can't really see the scratches unless you're examining the robot up close.