Your Guide to Perfect Surface Finishes: How All Metals Fabricating Matches You to the Ideal Option

At All Metals Fabricating, our expertise extends beyond custom metal fabrication and precision machining—we know your part isn’t complete until it has the perfect finish. Surface coatings and treatments, such as anodizing, powder coating, and chem film, play a critical role in enhancing longevity, functionality, and appearance. However, choosing the right option can be challenging, as each application has its own specific requirements, and every project comes with different priorities, including budget and turnaround time. 

This is where our expertise becomes your competitive advantage. We help you navigate your surface coating and treatment options to find the most appropriate solution, whether that’s through our in-house finishing options or our trusted network of partners. When you work with All Metals, you can count on us to deliver the best finish for your part, on time and on budget.

How Our Expertise Guides You to the Perfect Finish

When you partner with All Metals for finishing, our engineers and account managers begin the process by discussing your part’s application and requirements. We take the time to understand every detail, as multiple factors influence your final decision, including:

Environmental exposure: The operating environment often dictates a finish selection. A part exposed to salt spray and humidity demands robust protection, while indoor parts may need minimal treatment.

Functionality needs: Some applications demand aesthetic excellence, while others require only protection or durability. Our design-for-manufacturing (DfM) expertise helps optimize these decisions—for instance, we often recommend removing unnecessary cosmetic finishes from components that will be installed inside the final product, potentially reducing costs without compromising performance.

Material type: Your base material doesn't just influence which finishes you need, it often determines which are possible. Different metals respond differently to various finishing processes, and our expertise helps you navigate these technical constraints while meeting your performance requirements.

Our team excels at guiding you through this decision-making process. By consulting with us early in your design phase, our account managers and engineers can help you optimize your choices for both performance and cost-effectiveness.

Our In-House Finishing Capabilities for Faster Turnaround

Through our integrated finishing department at All Powder Coat & Screen (APCS), we offer a comprehensive range of coating, printing, and marking solutions. By maintaining these capabilities internally, we ensure strict quality control, reduce transportation costs, and deliver faster turnaround times.

With 50 years of experience, APCS operates as a seamless extension of All Metals, offering specialized services including:

  • Powder Coating: A durable, uniform finish ideal for protection and aesthetics, applied through an electrostatic spray.
  • Silk Screening: A process that uses a screen stencil and ink to apply graphics or text, particularly effective for company names or logos.
  • Pad Printing: A specialized technique that transfers ink from a silicone pad onto your item, perfect for large volumes and detailed designs.
  • Laser Marking: Permanent, high-contrast markings for serial numbers, barcodes, and regulatory compliance.

The Trusted Vendor Network to Manage Any Finishing Need

While our in-house capabilities cover many common finishing needs, we've also built strong partnerships with trusted vendors to offer a complete range of finishing solutions. Through our network, we can access nearly any finishing service—the most popular include:

  • Plating options
  • Hot dip galvanizing
  • Chem film
  • Anodizing
  • Passivation
  • Wet paint
  • And more

We manage these vendor relationships as an extension of our own operations. From your perspective, the experience feels like dealing with a single, integrated supplier. After we’ve discussed your project’s needs, we work with the appropriate vendor for your priorities. We handle all vendor coordination, quality control, and logistics, delivering a seamless experience while maintaining competitive pricing and optimal lead times.

For your reference, we've compiled a comprehensive list at the end of this blog of our most commonly outsourced plating finishing processes and their compatible substrates.

Partner With All Metals for All Your Finishing Solutions

Whether you need in-house powder coating from APCS or specialized plating solutions from our vendor network, we provide comprehensive finishing solutions backed by decades of expertise. From initial sheet metal fab or CNC lathe services through to final finishing, we manage your entire project and streamline your entire manufacturing process.

Request a quote today and let us help you select the perfect finish for your application!

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