Paintball Manufacturing FAQs:
Explaining the processes of manufacturing fo paintball

Manufacturing FAQs: Explaining the processes in making things.

Simon Stevens explains the processes of manufacturing for the industry of paintball.

Aluminum Anodizing

Ahh the fun of anodizing. We use three (used to be four) anodizers. All anodizing processes have tolerances and variations inherent in the process that lead to slight differences in shade or tone. There are “warm” tones where the part ends up slightly more brown or red, “cool tones” where the parts end up more blue, and “royal” tones where the parts end up more purple. Apparently any/all of these are inherent in the process and are common when anodizing black.

The two main factors (before we get into the light you are looking at it under and the surface finish reflections) are the original material and the anodizing process itself. Tolerances in the make up of the alloy can affect the colorations seen. You can see the make up % of one of the most common alloys used here ALUMINUM ALLOY even pieces from the same bar of material can have slight variations in the alloy such that when anodized right next to each other in the same bath and process they have different shades.

Next the anodizing process has many variables to it, including mixture, dye content/type, flow, age, temp, voltage etc. and different parts again in the same bath but of identical material can end up with variations. I am told this is a standard part of the anodizing process and the shade tolerance range is normal. We actually just stopped doing business with our fourth anodizer because we disagreed with their tolerance range on some coloured parts and they declined to do business with us anymore as we are too picky. ☹

Then there is the finish, the polishing or media blasting can vary based upon who was doing it that day, if the media is worn etc. and depending on the amount of media or polishing the light can reflect differently again giving a different tone. This is why many companies refuse to make polished parts available and don’t put parts of the same colour next to each other on a gun, but instead “accent” by keeping parts next to each other different colours or finishes entirely. Due to our very small scale manufacturing we have some parts that were made and anodized a year ago and some that were made and anodized last week. Ensuring the process and material is the same under both circumstances is simply impossible so there will always be variations in the finish/shade of the parts and a tolerance has to be allowed for the variations in finish and shade. We try to minimize it, but there are tolerances that are out of our control (material, finishing and anodizing process as they are not done in house). Getting to tighter tolerances in the anodizing process means exponential increases in cost and some of our suppliers simply won’ / can’t do it.

If the tone or shade of parts is critical to you there are a couple of solutions:

• (1) buy locally where you can check the parts and make sure they match satisfactorily for you.
• (2) have all of the parts processed and anodized at exactly the same time by the custom anodizer of your choice, and pick someone that is good at colour matching so they can work with the variations in the original material stock to get exactly what you want.

This can be expensive, but if it’s that important for you it is the only solution I am aware of.