Anodizing the Plates
95 Grasshoppers like to say everything looks better in green, we think pink 
makes robots look better. We have been looking at the different ways to get our junction plates pink this year. Basically 2 options there:
- Spray Paint: Easy process, reliable result and gonna chip probably quickly.
- Powder Coating: More durable than just spray paint but we don’t have access top an oven.
- Anodizing: More complex process, need more material BUT… We have a chemistry teacher at school! And who doesn’t want to try it?
We went to the chemistry teacher, she said she would help us doing it!
Our mentor went to buy spray paint just in case…
Here is a little bit of the process we followed, conclusion at the end of the post.
Cleaning the parts
The whole process starts with removing all contaminant from the aluminum parts using a bath of Akanox and Distilled Water. And drying everything.
Hanging the parts
This is probably one of the most laborious part, hang all the parts with Aluminum wire on top of the container in a way that they don’t touch
Anodizing
This is simply mixing Sulfuric Acid with some distilled water to have a good electrolyte… Poor it in the container with the plates.
The Cathode (-) is made of Lead sheeting one of us grabbed from his roof!
The Anode (+) is the Aluminum side (Aluminum wire and parts to be anodized)
Set Power Supply to 16V, 5A. That what we needed based on the surfaced to be anodized. Let it Bubble 45min.
Neutralizing the Acid
After 45min the Acid needs to be neutralized.
3 extra baths there: Distilled water, Sodium Bicarbonate and, Distilled water again.
Dying
Last step: plunge the parts in the Dye for 15min preheated at 60C
Then rince in boiling water
The Result…
So… We had some parts really coming well out of this process.
Some didn’t get any color 
We are going with it for the season anyway, this was a fun experience.
8626 will be Pink Camo this year 
.
Conclusion
We didn’t want to bother our chemistry teacher too long nor have her come another night (or 2, or 3…). So we tried to make all the plates at once.
That was probably a big mistake here.
First of all during the anodizing process, the power supply was not always at the required amperage, not saying lining up all the plates was really challenging.
Second we skipped etching the plates with Lye before anodizing. Literature said this could be optional, we should have done it to increase our chances of success.
Finally the Dye recipient was too small and plates were touching, preventing the dye to go through evenly across the plates.
Will we do it again? Yes probably, this was an interesting process. Now we have a better knowledge on it and should be able to learn for it for a more uniform result!
)
