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Coating for scanning

Hey I tagged you because I know you said somewhere on here you used it, or I think it was you, what brand or what works best for coating a nice shiny nickel plate finish, This is the first time the blue light scanner has struggled.
  • I sure did mention it some time ago... I've only used it once though and when I did I didn't register the name brand. I don't work there anymore or else I would walk over to the department that's caked with that stuff aka the 'scanner' building aka metrology and ask those weirdoes. I may be mistaken but it might of been a common machine shop brand like Starret or Verisurf.... I think.
  • I have used black spray paint before on parts that were not going to be used for anything but inspection. Just a light little spritz here and there to give the laser something to detect.
  • I have used black spray paint before on parts that were not going to be used for anything but inspection. Just a light little spritz here and there to give the laser something to detect.


    That got me thinking about a powder coating process, the type where you statically charge a part, spray it with powder, and bake it in an oven to melt the powder into a nice coating on the part. This may already be done somewhere, but it would be cool to do that for preparing a part for laser inspection. I bet you could get a super thin coat on something that way. It might even be safer than the dye penetrant developer as the particles would want to stay adhered to the part rather than getting in the air. I think it would require a powder that is safe to work with and picks up well with a laser. Preferably something that is easy to wash off too, maybe water soluble.