ANODIZEOxide armorfor ag aluminum.
Hard-anodize coatings that lock harvester components — hydraulic housings, combine headers, auger tubes — in a ceramic-hard oxide layer built to outlast ten thousand acres of Kansas wheat dust.
Chromic Acid Anodize
Sulfuric Acid Anodize
Hard Coat Anodize
Performance that
survives the field.
Three clients. Three applications. All measured in the same currency — field hours and dollars saved.
Sunflower State Implement — Salina, KS
Salina, Kansas · 12-county service territory · 340 active accounts
"We were replacing auger flights on grain carts every fourteen months. Our parts counter was basically a corrosion warranty department."
Sunflower State's fleet customers were running 6061-T6 auger flights bare — factory anodize stripped by the second harvest. Pit corrosion was creating binding in the tube, accelerating wear on the flight edges. Warranty claims on auger assemblies accounted for 38% of their total parts department returns.
Type III Hard Coat — MIL-A-8625 Type III, 1.5 mil target, black dye seal
1.5 mil hard coat penetrates 50% into the substrate, 50% builds above. At Rockwell C-60 surface hardness, the flight edges resist the abrasive silica in Kansas wheat dust without sacrificing dimensional tolerance on the tube fit.
Meridian Harvesting Systems — Wichita, KS
Wichita, Kansas · Next-generation combine header program · 22,000-unit annual run
"Our hydraulic housings were passing internal salt spray at 500 hours. The new header program spec called for 1,500. We had a problem."
Meridian's engineering team was spec'ing a new hydraulic manifold block for their variable-speed draper header. The block is cast 356-T6, mounts in the header center section, and sees direct chaff impingement plus hydraulic fluid cycling. Their existing Type II coating failed ASTM B117 at 680 hours — 820 hours short of the program target.
Type III Hard Coat + PTFE Seal — MIL-A-8625 Type III, 1.8 mil, PTFE secondary seal
The PTFE impregnation fills the micro-porous structure of the hard coat, eliminating the electrolytic pathway that allows salt penetration. On cast 356 alloy, we run a modified bath chemistry to manage the silicon content — standard hard coat bath produces a smutted surface on high-silicon castings.
High Plains Grain — Liberal, KS
Liberal, Kansas · 200-machine fleet · 380,000 acres annual harvest capacity
"At 200 machines, a fourteen-month component life on grain cart tubes isn't a maintenance problem. It's a capital allocation problem."
High Plains Grain runs a centralized maintenance program across six harvest crews. Their grain cart auger tubes — all 6063-T5 extrusion — were requiring replacement every 14.2 months on average. At 200 machines with 2 tubes each, that's 340 tube replacements per year. Downtime during harvest for a tube swap costs them approximately $1,200 per incident in lost throughput.
Type III Hard Coat — MIL-A-8625 Type III, 1.2 mil, natural seal, dimensional tolerance ±0.0005″
Extruded 6063 responds well to hard coat — lower copper content than 6061 means a denser, more uniform oxide layer. At 1.2 mil we stay within the dimensional tolerance for the tube-to-housing fit. The natural (unsealed) finish maintains the surface hardness while keeping the coefficient of friction low for grain flow.
In-House Chemistry
Sulfuric, chromic, and hardcoat baths on-site. No job shop routing. Full process control from rack to seal.
Dimensional Control
Hard coat builds ±0.0002″ per surface. We document pre- and post-anodize measurements on every lot.
Certified Testing
ASTM B117 salt spray, film thickness by eddy-current (ASTM B244), hardness by Vickers — all in-house.
5-Day Standard Lead
Prototype through production. Expedited 48-hour service available for harvest-critical components.
The corrosion data
has made the case.
Send us your part spec. We'll return a formal quote with thickness recommendations, tolerance documentation, and lead time within one business day. No obligation.
Submit spec + alloy info
Drawing optional — alloy and application required
Engineering review
We confirm spec, flag any alloy-specific considerations
Formal quote + lead time
Fixed price. No per-part surprise charges.
First article + approval
CMM report and film thickness cert on first lot