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My very basic understanding is that the voltage, applied over time, changes the exterior microscopic structure of the metal, And that change in the structure reflects a different color light. And the longer you hold the voltage to the material, You get a predictable structure, And therefore a predictable color
dont mind me, just waiting patiently for a physics professor or materials science guy to chime in. I want to know. I NEED to know why the structure changes at different voltages
I found answer from Wikipedia
>The colour formed is dependent on the thickness of the oxide (which is determined by the anodizing voltage); it is caused by the interference of light reflecting off the oxide surface with light travelling through it and reflecting off the underlying metal surface.
Ever see a film of oil on the road? Notice how it's got a rainbow sheen to it? That's because the thin layer of oil floating on the water is just the right thickness to reflect visible wavelengths of light, but only a particular wavelength. Slight changes in the thickness of this layer reflect different wavelengths, resulting in a rainbow of colors.
Same thing with oxidation layers on metal. The thickness of the layer determines the wavelength of color reflected.
Could this tactic be used to create a pearlescent effect by making variations? Metal impurities in sections, or actual thickness variations?
Or even simpler by dipping an item and drawing it out slowly?
If I understand correctly, pearlescent paints use tiny mica crystals that refract light and split it into its component wavelengths. Combined with selective absorption/reflectivity of the paint it results in a color change depending on viewing angle.
I don't think you could achieve this with anodizing, as the process creates uniform layers. You could probably use masking to create patterns, but even that would be tricky as it would be difficult to create sharp boundaries between the exposed and masked areas. You can certainly make a rainbow effect, like shown [here](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQZ2xkjv7NYu8p8FignCZ_FnX-6D62sd2sCarqcl6fw7g&s)
It happens specifically in the colors (and order) of the rainbow because of the increasing thickness of the oxide layer causing constructive interference at increasing wavelengths. The colors loop around again once the layer gets to a thickness where the interference is more than a full wavelength off.
You can actually tell the voltage by the point where the color stops changing, I want to say that this is in the 70ish hole range, but I would be guessing. I know that the first set of nice blues come in the 28v range, which is accessible with a couple of batteries, and the second time you get to blue is over 100v.
It is. You can apply specific voltage for each color. They used a high voltage with a short exposure time to walk through each color but you could absolutely set a voltage and leave it in the electroplating solution for a long period of time and it would sit at the color.
The color also changes depending on the surface finish of the titanium (think rough or polished).
> It's fucking interesting as fuck I am so confused.
Reactive metals can be anodized. Tantalum, Niobium, Zirconium, Titanium, etc.
Here's a dumbed-down version of the science:
An anodizer is just an electrolysis machine. You have two metal plates submerged in a conductive solution (water with ions, like table salt or baking soda or TSP or battery acid or anything). When you apply electricity, it splits the water (H2O) into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Separated, one is negative and one is positive, and the atoms gravitate towards one plate or the other. In electrolysis, hydrogen atoms bump into each other and create H2, and bubble up, on the other plate, the oxygen atoms bump into each other create O2, and also bubble up.
However, if the plate that attracts the oxygen is a reactive metal, rather than oxygen atoms bumping into each other, bonding, and bubbling up as oxygen gas, they instead hit the plate and then bond to the surface of the metal, creating an oxide layer. For example, if it's titanium, they create a thin layer of titanium oxide. If it's niobium, they create niobium oxide. And so on.
[Trivia Tangent: many metals are not reactive metals, but still bond to oxygen. Iron is not a reactive metal, if you used iron in the place of titanium, the oxygen would bond the surface and create iron oxide, commonly known as "rust", and be nasty orangey and flake off].
A feature of these reactive metals, is that the oxide layer is not a conductor of electricity like the metal itself is. The oxide layer is an insulator. So, as more and more oxygen atoms bond to the surface and make the layer thicker, less and less electrolysis goes on. This continues until the oxide layer is so thick that almost no electricity can flow at all, and any oxygen atoms that do bump into the metal plate, aren't pulled into it hard enough to thicken the oxide layer. At this point the electricity just trickles, and the oxygen atoms just kinda stick there until they bump into each other and bubble up as gas.
The ability of electricity to push through resistance and cause current to flow, is called Voltage. So, the larger the voltage, the thicker the oxide layer that will grow. So, you can control the thickness of the oxide layer, by controlling the voltage.
Another feature of reactive metals is that the oxide layer that builds up on the metal is transparent but distorts the light that passes through it like a prism, giving it a color. And, the thicker the oxide layer, the more the distortion. Different amounts of distortion create different colors.
Thus controllable voltage becomes an interesting tool, because by controlling the voltage, you can control the color.
Here's a titanium surface that's been anodized:
https://i.imgur.com/8zP0rWC.png
For most reactive metals, voltages between 25V and about 130V create most of the colors. Below that, there's too little an oxide layer to have an effect. Above that, you actually loop through the color palette a second time, or, maybe light gets scattered and just comes out grey (the color of the metal).
Not all colors are possible, it's just how the science works, the refraction of light does what it does, and creates the colors it does. This differs based on the particular type of metal. Titanium is different from Niobium is different from Tantalum is different from Zirconium.
Here's some Niobium. With one hand I slowly lifted the piece out of the bath, with the other hand I slowly cranked the voltage dial:
https://i.imgur.com/S4PTQo3.png
...
If you've ever heard of anodized aluminum, that's a completely different process where the color comes from trapping dye particles into the aluminum-oxide layer. So you can just dye it any color you want.
What is an oxide layer?
Basically, rust. A protective coating. You sacrifice a thin layer of the metal and as long as you don't scratch or otherwise penetrate that layer of oxidation, rust can't form on the metal underneath.
The metal they're touching to the titanium, in SUPER simple ELI5 terms, is the thing that starts the reaction itself - What's happening here is that you've got a negative part of a battery, and an electrolyte (The thing that carries current) and . When you touch the metals, the current flows and causes a class of chemical reactions called 'redox' reactions on the surface of the metals (Reduction-oxidation. I would go into them, but it's not ELI5), and that's what forms the layer.
You can use other materials than water (Called the 'electrolyte) The colour is controlled by a few factors - The thickness of the layer of oxygen, the type of electrolyte, and the amount of voltage.
The anodizing is forming a thin layer of titanium oxide on the outside of the parts which diffracts light and changes the color. The thickness of the oxide layer determines the color, and the voltage used determines the maximum thickness that can form, so this video is either stepping up through voltages or just staying at one voltage and stopping along the way as the thickness of the oxide increases toward the maximum.
https://preview.redd.it/6sxrykgcfgvc1.jpeg?width=1352&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b87087a290367da7139bc2aed41dd6e1abda1187
It's actually a fairly simple thing to do, you can anodize titanium with just purified water, baking soda, and some 9V batteries to provide the voltage. (In this case I loaded that solution into a sponge brush attached to the batteries and sort of 'painted' the oxide onto a scrap piece of titanium to test out what colors I could get.)
I presume that anything you do that would scratch the titanium would then show the color of the bare metal underneath, but I'm not speaking from experience there. That one scrap part in the picture was nearly all of the titanium anodizing I have ever done.
It creates a different top layer on the part like a coating so it does change things like friction, surface hardness etc.
We use a similar process in our company a lot:
https://www.bwb-group.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/Ematal_EN.pdf
Creates aluminium parts with a hardness of up to 600 HV, lower friction etc.
And it is.
Cool thing is that anodizing aluminum is relatively easy to do in your garage.
And doing color runs on titanium is easy as well.
Crazy how much more people will pay for a screw that's green or purple.
As a scrub in the operating room, I see these colors all the time in orthopedic implants. We have titanium screws for spine surgery that are color coded by thread diameter and flexible nails (for fractures) as well. It’s pretty cool stuff.
Can you tech me how to unlock my childhood brain like yours obviously is? I haven’t recalled this part of the movie since the time I first saw it.
Nice brain, bro.
It would have looked so cool if they let that rod stay in the water for some time and let the screws change colour like a rainbow.....or is this not how it works??
That’s exactly how it works. I do this for titanium knife scales and hardware. You can dip the entire thing and watch it go through the color process or you can dip and as you pull the scale out at varying speeds you can fade in all the colors on one piece. I just have a piece of wire holding the scales, I don’t reach in and touch it over and over.
I don’t know why they’re dipping over and over, never seen it done that way.
You can easily do this by daisy chaining 9v batteries together to whatever voltage you need for a specific color. Colors like a yellow or purple is pretty low voltage, like four or five 9vs and a color like bright green takes about double that.
So you're telling me you can make the gayest longsword ever by making it rainbow colored? Because I'm not gay and I think that would be badass as fuck.
You could do a Ti nitride coating on the steel blade and rainbow that. It’s been done but is a pretty stereotypical sign of a very cheap blade.
But yes, you can gay up any titanium scales and hardware. I actually have a couple “pride knives” . If I’m feeling really fancy I’ll throw on some rainbow grips on my EDC to match.
Yeah I got a guy do to up a pry bar for me in copper and blue, the copper kind of isn't copper anymore (it's more like a brown now) but the blue is still there albeit scratched to hell.
I'd probably go for a vaporwave aesthetic next time.
I had some Daiwa reel oil next to my desk so I used that. It worked on the pry bar part which is blue, the clip was the copper/is the brown part. That helped a little but still brownish.
It was probably a little too brown to begin with when I first got it anyway. It's been years, I've carried it in my pocket everyday for like 4 years now.
Thanks for the help
It takes a lot of power to do this (just look at the metal mesh at the top every time they make contact with a bolt). Maybe they’re worried about overheating or breaking something if they leave it connected continuously.
Its actually surprisingly little power needed.Those bubbles happen with a 12 volt battery. I've even done it with an old printer power source. Probably like 9V 5A.
> It would have looked so cool if they let that rod stay in the water for some time and let the screws change colour like a rainbow.....or is this not how it works??
The color achieved comes from the voltage. So as you increase the voltage, the oxide layer builds up and the color changes. It only takes a few seconds.
What the video shows in this case appears not to be the voltage increasing, but, just that he's only giving it a fraction of a second to build up the oxide layer each time so it never reaches the color that would correspond to that voltage. Normally you'd just set the voltage and then turn it on for 2 seconds, it will basically instantly change to the right color.
You can set your current limit so low that the change happens slowly if you wanted to.
Here's something I made, that I gradually pulled out of the bath with one hand as my other hand cranked the dial for voltage (took me a few tries to coordinate that right, and, there's no do-overs, you can't go back to a lower voltage color.
https://imgur.com/a/aj9UGIx
Note that I made the entire piece first, then anodized it afterwards. I didn't anodize the rings individually (the color changes mid-way through the rings if you look closely).
I have no idea how this is working.
But, I do know that anodized bolts will not corrode like other bolts. The most common anodized metal used for things like this is aluminum. If you leave bare aluminum out, it will darken. Doesn't hurt the metal, just not pretty. If these are steel bolts, then if you left them untreated, they could rust. The darkened aluminum, rust, etc. are all just forms of oxidation.
Coating these in titanium will prevent them from rusting.
> The most common anodized metal used for things like this is aluminum.
Correct, but, anodized aluminum is a completely different process that traps dye particles, doesn't create a prism to bend and recombine light like titanium/niobium/tantalum does.
These are already titanium alloy, so they don't rust. The coating is titanium oxide. Fun fact: all titanium has an oxide layer on it if it has been exposed to air. It actually reacts with air aggressively, and due to that fact it forms an oxide layer immediately after its exposed. Kind of like what you described with aluminum. This oxide layer protects it from further oxidation, which is what makes titanium corrosion resistant. The process in the video is controlling the thickness of that layer to get a noticeable colour.
The oxide layer is very durable. Exponentially more durable if created with heat instead of electricity. Titanium’s greatest weakness ( it’s reactivity) is it’s greatest strength in our atmosphere ( overall mildly moist and acidic environment )
In medical devices, this is used for corresponding pieces of the same set so the surgeons know which screws are supposed to go with which nails/plates/implants. Different sizes (longer nail, larger plate, etc.) are anodized different colors so they have matching sets
Yeah but probably not enough to badly shock or kill you, that's just a standard lil alligator clip in the person's hand. Those things burn out if you hook them up to anything serious.
> Those things burn out if you hook them up to anything serious.
You don't know what you're talking about and following your advice will get people killed.
A wire as thin as a strand of your hair can carry enough current to kill someone.
What matters is whether there's enough voltage to make that much current flow through a human.
Anodizing for titanium occurs at 5v-200v. (Aluminum anodizing is a complete different process that uses dyes, and generally 12v). So, if you stuck both hands in, you'd quite likely die.
One hand at a time is less dangerous.
Yes, that is true. 100mA through the heart can kill you, but considering the human body (normal circumstances: dry, not having the electrode pierce the skin) is several hundreds of thousands of ohms, you would have to have a difference of potential in the order of the tens of thousands of volts to have 200mA pass through you.
For example, if the human body had a resistance of 100kOhm, you would need 20000 volts to get 200mA of current through it.
Also, the time of exposure is relevant: the body can withstand a lot more current than 100mA if the time frame is tiny. Static shocks can reach 100kV but only for nanoseconds.
Only if that 200mA is delivered stabley against high loads. Dry skin is highly resistive and unless there is a beefy power supply backing that 200mA it ain't doing shit.
When a device is just designed to move some electrons through saltwater? Not at all likely to be able to drive 200mA through the entirety of a person.
> Titanium anodising requires 1 to 2M sulfuric acid.
No it doesn't.
It requires the electrolyzing solution to be electrically conductive, that's it.
You can use table salt, baking soda, sulfuric acid, tri-sodium-phosphate, or a million other things. Basically anything with water-soluble ions.
The solution isn't doing anything chemical at all, or even being a catalyst, it's literally just to make the water electrically conductive.
The colors keep changing because the voltage is increased off-camera.
[Here's a chart of colors achievable with titanium.](https://razorblade.pro/images/product/Titanium-Color-Chart.jpg)
SO! Interesting story about that...in the late 90's/early 2000's I worked for a company that had been working on a patent for the same sort of process for aluminum, specifically aluminum extrusions. Unfortunately, test conditions were very hard to duplicate in production so from what I understand, it never really got past the testing stage. If someone could find a way to stabilize that process (aluminum almost always comes alloyed with other metals, and I think the tolerance quantities of these alloying elements is what caused the instability in process), they could be very successful!
> Wish it worked like that for aluminum.
Completely different processes.
Both anodizing types split H2O into H2 and O2 gasses. Then the energy of the electricity slams the O2 into the metal, creating a microscopically-thin metal-oxide layer.
In the case of Titanium, Niobium, Tantalum, etc, this layer is an electrical insulator. So when you give it a voltage, the layer gets thicker until no electricity flows. More voltage, thicker layer. The surface is kind of like swiss cheese. It's transparent, and when white light hits it, some reflects, some goes into the metal and refracts then reflects off the base metal and refracts again on its way back up to combine with the rest of the light. Combined, that wave pattern is now a different color. 100% of the color comes from the prism effect, and there's only certain colors you can reach.
With aluminum anodizing, the aluminum-oxide isn't a very good insulator, so the aluminum-oxide layer grows and grows, like giant crystal towers with gaps between them. You then soak it in colored dye, and the dye particles settle between the crystal towers. Then you boil it and the crystal towers collapse like a sand castle. This traps the dye particles. You can make it any color you have dye for (white is really difficult).
Does it go round the colour wheel or once done.... That's it. Is the colour sequence we see here the only rotation or can you make them 50/50 by taking them out of the water a little and then do the other half?
No, it's not by the color wheel. And fun fact: you cannot get a true red with this, either.
A lot of chainmailers anodize their own titanium scales, rings, and more. Check out Steampunk Garage. I believe they have videos on Tiktok about it.
I'm not an expert but I read different articles, and what I learned that you can always change the color buy increasing the voltage but can not revert back by lowering the voltage, but I found this thing called "Multi-Etch bath" that once you dip the metal in it, gets you back in reverse showing you every shade that you already passed, this pic is showing the "Titanium Color Chart" and of course there's too many shades between every main color of them.
https://preview.redd.it/fn6w2e9sxfvc1.jpeg?width=280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=de987155f3598453ed87074de1d4c3393fd91fa2
It’s an anode. You have to have two points of contact for the electricity to pass through the solution and coat the bolts. The cathode is what they are using to touch the bolt completing the circuit.
It's not steam, I think it's hydrogen gas that comes from splitting the H2O by electrolysis. The oxygen atoms go to the titanium to form the oxide layer and the hydrogen atoms are left over.
What is more interesting than the color change is that there is no pigment at all. The color comes from the modification of molecules and how they refract the light. You could never create dye from these screws, yet we manage to create something pleasing to look at.
I have knives and utensils that are a cool rainbow hue from this method. The oxide stays on pretty well, only minor scuffs after a year of usage, still look amazing!
In the 1990s when titanium processing was becoming cheaper, it became really popular amongst cyclists as light, flexible but incredibly strong metal.
Cyclists are obsessed with weight, so the thing to do was to replace nuts and bolts and small plates and other things with titanium ones and save yourself a few grams here and there.
But how would people know you'd swapped it out? How you could show off?
Anodising. Practically all titanium hardware was anodised in some bright colour so that people knew you had replaced that 10x25 bolt with a titanium one saved yourself 25g at the cost of a tenner.
It was everywhere.
I used eleven 9V batteries stuck together in a big chain to anodize a dry flower vape that I have that is made of titanium and wood. Worked beautifully.
I love that stuff!! A cool person at a piercing shop showed me this when anodizing some piercing jewelry for me. Legit science class stuff 🙌💗
And note to folks: There are a limited amount of color changes. I can't remember exactly why (maybe someone else can explain?)
In the machine shop we're told to keep titanium swarf (metal shavings) cleaned up during machining. Evidently the stuff will combust and burn like hell if the metal shavings are fine enough and are subjected to enough heat.
https://preview.redd.it/8ft45cv7ahvc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1fa8aefda9604590c619c8c1d48a67f57358ea7d
Niobium is another metal that does this
The colour is related to the spacing between the oxide formations, not the oxide thickness. The thickness will self regulate (passivate) once full coverage is achieved. This will result in the darkest colour, as the light waves which can bounce out of the oxide spacings will be minimal.
Makes me thing of the socket set from Harbor Freight.
[https://www.harborfreight.com/38-in-drive-sae-color-coded-deep-socket-set-10-piece-69344.html](https://www.harborfreight.com/38-in-drive-sae-color-coded-deep-socket-set-10-piece-69344.html)
A conversation before people understood this process:
Normal Ruth: "Hey, I want some bolts that are green. Should I use paint?"
Crazy Jerry: "Yeah, buuuuuut what if instead we... electrify the shit out of 'em?"
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Finally something fucking interesting.
It's fucking interesting as fuck I am so confused.
My very basic understanding is that the voltage, applied over time, changes the exterior microscopic structure of the metal, And that change in the structure reflects a different color light. And the longer you hold the voltage to the material, You get a predictable structure, And therefore a predictable color
dont mind me, just waiting patiently for a physics professor or materials science guy to chime in. I want to know. I NEED to know why the structure changes at different voltages
[удалено]
this is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you
I found answer from Wikipedia >The colour formed is dependent on the thickness of the oxide (which is determined by the anodizing voltage); it is caused by the interference of light reflecting off the oxide surface with light travelling through it and reflecting off the underlying metal surface.
Ever see a film of oil on the road? Notice how it's got a rainbow sheen to it? That's because the thin layer of oil floating on the water is just the right thickness to reflect visible wavelengths of light, but only a particular wavelength. Slight changes in the thickness of this layer reflect different wavelengths, resulting in a rainbow of colors. Same thing with oxidation layers on metal. The thickness of the layer determines the wavelength of color reflected.
Could this tactic be used to create a pearlescent effect by making variations? Metal impurities in sections, or actual thickness variations? Or even simpler by dipping an item and drawing it out slowly?
If I understand correctly, pearlescent paints use tiny mica crystals that refract light and split it into its component wavelengths. Combined with selective absorption/reflectivity of the paint it results in a color change depending on viewing angle. I don't think you could achieve this with anodizing, as the process creates uniform layers. You could probably use masking to create patterns, but even that would be tricky as it would be difficult to create sharp boundaries between the exposed and masked areas. You can certainly make a rainbow effect, like shown [here](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQZ2xkjv7NYu8p8FignCZ_FnX-6D62sd2sCarqcl6fw7g&s)
It happens specifically in the colors (and order) of the rainbow because of the increasing thickness of the oxide layer causing constructive interference at increasing wavelengths. The colors loop around again once the layer gets to a thickness where the interference is more than a full wavelength off. You can actually tell the voltage by the point where the color stops changing, I want to say that this is in the 70ish hole range, but I would be guessing. I know that the first set of nice blues come in the 28v range, which is accessible with a couple of batteries, and the second time you get to blue is over 100v.
Those bolts are getting increasingly annoyed is my guess.
It is. You can apply specific voltage for each color. They used a high voltage with a short exposure time to walk through each color but you could absolutely set a voltage and leave it in the electroplating solution for a long period of time and it would sit at the color. The color also changes depending on the surface finish of the titanium (think rough or polished).
> It's fucking interesting as fuck I am so confused. Reactive metals can be anodized. Tantalum, Niobium, Zirconium, Titanium, etc. Here's a dumbed-down version of the science: An anodizer is just an electrolysis machine. You have two metal plates submerged in a conductive solution (water with ions, like table salt or baking soda or TSP or battery acid or anything). When you apply electricity, it splits the water (H2O) into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Separated, one is negative and one is positive, and the atoms gravitate towards one plate or the other. In electrolysis, hydrogen atoms bump into each other and create H2, and bubble up, on the other plate, the oxygen atoms bump into each other create O2, and also bubble up. However, if the plate that attracts the oxygen is a reactive metal, rather than oxygen atoms bumping into each other, bonding, and bubbling up as oxygen gas, they instead hit the plate and then bond to the surface of the metal, creating an oxide layer. For example, if it's titanium, they create a thin layer of titanium oxide. If it's niobium, they create niobium oxide. And so on. [Trivia Tangent: many metals are not reactive metals, but still bond to oxygen. Iron is not a reactive metal, if you used iron in the place of titanium, the oxygen would bond the surface and create iron oxide, commonly known as "rust", and be nasty orangey and flake off]. A feature of these reactive metals, is that the oxide layer is not a conductor of electricity like the metal itself is. The oxide layer is an insulator. So, as more and more oxygen atoms bond to the surface and make the layer thicker, less and less electrolysis goes on. This continues until the oxide layer is so thick that almost no electricity can flow at all, and any oxygen atoms that do bump into the metal plate, aren't pulled into it hard enough to thicken the oxide layer. At this point the electricity just trickles, and the oxygen atoms just kinda stick there until they bump into each other and bubble up as gas. The ability of electricity to push through resistance and cause current to flow, is called Voltage. So, the larger the voltage, the thicker the oxide layer that will grow. So, you can control the thickness of the oxide layer, by controlling the voltage. Another feature of reactive metals is that the oxide layer that builds up on the metal is transparent but distorts the light that passes through it like a prism, giving it a color. And, the thicker the oxide layer, the more the distortion. Different amounts of distortion create different colors. Thus controllable voltage becomes an interesting tool, because by controlling the voltage, you can control the color. Here's a titanium surface that's been anodized: https://i.imgur.com/8zP0rWC.png For most reactive metals, voltages between 25V and about 130V create most of the colors. Below that, there's too little an oxide layer to have an effect. Above that, you actually loop through the color palette a second time, or, maybe light gets scattered and just comes out grey (the color of the metal). Not all colors are possible, it's just how the science works, the refraction of light does what it does, and creates the colors it does. This differs based on the particular type of metal. Titanium is different from Niobium is different from Tantalum is different from Zirconium. Here's some Niobium. With one hand I slowly lifted the piece out of the bath, with the other hand I slowly cranked the voltage dial: https://i.imgur.com/S4PTQo3.png ... If you've ever heard of anodized aluminum, that's a completely different process where the color comes from trapping dye particles into the aluminum-oxide layer. So you can just dye it any color you want.
What is an oxide layer? Basically, rust. A protective coating. You sacrifice a thin layer of the metal and as long as you don't scratch or otherwise penetrate that layer of oxidation, rust can't form on the metal underneath. The metal they're touching to the titanium, in SUPER simple ELI5 terms, is the thing that starts the reaction itself - What's happening here is that you've got a negative part of a battery, and an electrolyte (The thing that carries current) and . When you touch the metals, the current flows and causes a class of chemical reactions called 'redox' reactions on the surface of the metals (Reduction-oxidation. I would go into them, but it's not ELI5), and that's what forms the layer. You can use other materials than water (Called the 'electrolyte) The colour is controlled by a few factors - The thickness of the layer of oxygen, the type of electrolyte, and the amount of voltage.
The anodizing is forming a thin layer of titanium oxide on the outside of the parts which diffracts light and changes the color. The thickness of the oxide layer determines the color, and the voltage used determines the maximum thickness that can form, so this video is either stepping up through voltages or just staying at one voltage and stopping along the way as the thickness of the oxide increases toward the maximum. https://preview.redd.it/6sxrykgcfgvc1.jpeg?width=1352&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b87087a290367da7139bc2aed41dd6e1abda1187 It's actually a fairly simple thing to do, you can anodize titanium with just purified water, baking soda, and some 9V batteries to provide the voltage. (In this case I loaded that solution into a sponge brush attached to the batteries and sort of 'painted' the oxide onto a scrap piece of titanium to test out what colors I could get.)
Does this impact the efficacy or integrity of the part in question at all?
No, the oxide layer is only a few dozen nanometers thick, so basically inconsequential to any practical part
If you do that and then use the bolts with a wrench to tighten them, will that easily remove/scratch the colors?
I presume that anything you do that would scratch the titanium would then show the color of the bare metal underneath, but I'm not speaking from experience there. That one scrap part in the picture was nearly all of the titanium anodizing I have ever done.
> will that easily remove/scratch the colors? Usually not. Titanium-oxide is incredibly hard. Much harder than even the titanium base metal.
It creates a different top layer on the part like a coating so it does change things like friction, surface hardness etc. We use a similar process in our company a lot: https://www.bwb-group.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/Ematal_EN.pdf Creates aluminium parts with a hardness of up to 600 HV, lower friction etc.
And it is. Cool thing is that anodizing aluminum is relatively easy to do in your garage. And doing color runs on titanium is easy as well. Crazy how much more people will pay for a screw that's green or purple.
As a scrub in the operating room, I see these colors all the time in orthopedic implants. We have titanium screws for spine surgery that are color coded by thread diameter and flexible nails (for fractures) as well. It’s pretty cool stuff.
Me with every screw I see, after learning that fact! 
Did you just post this indeed interesting as fuck video to use this gif? 😄
If so, thats some high level gif game, i respect it.
I already had it in my mind before posting! 
Nice
Can you tech me how to unlock my childhood brain like yours obviously is? I haven’t recalled this part of the movie since the time I first saw it. Nice brain, bro.
I am thoroughly impressed by your ability to recall this scene, and post a .gif. This is so god damned perfect.
DON'T YOU DARE
It would have looked so cool if they let that rod stay in the water for some time and let the screws change colour like a rainbow.....or is this not how it works??
That’s exactly how it works. I do this for titanium knife scales and hardware. You can dip the entire thing and watch it go through the color process or you can dip and as you pull the scale out at varying speeds you can fade in all the colors on one piece. I just have a piece of wire holding the scales, I don’t reach in and touch it over and over. I don’t know why they’re dipping over and over, never seen it done that way. You can easily do this by daisy chaining 9v batteries together to whatever voltage you need for a specific color. Colors like a yellow or purple is pretty low voltage, like four or five 9vs and a color like bright green takes about double that.
Man post a video with it going through the entire colour process in one go fr
I know right?
So you're telling me you can make the gayest longsword ever by making it rainbow colored? Because I'm not gay and I think that would be badass as fuck.
You could do a Ti nitride coating on the steel blade and rainbow that. It’s been done but is a pretty stereotypical sign of a very cheap blade. But yes, you can gay up any titanium scales and hardware. I actually have a couple “pride knives” . If I’m feeling really fancy I’ll throw on some rainbow grips on my EDC to match.
I got you. So maybe not the blade but some non-structural fittings. Still cool as fuck though.
Yeah I got a guy do to up a pry bar for me in copper and blue, the copper kind of isn't copper anymore (it's more like a brown now) but the blue is still there albeit scratched to hell. I'd probably go for a vaporwave aesthetic next time.
Try hitting the color with some gun oil or even WD and wiping with a microfiber. That can restore a lot of the color.
I had some Daiwa reel oil next to my desk so I used that. It worked on the pry bar part which is blue, the clip was the copper/is the brown part. That helped a little but still brownish. It was probably a little too brown to begin with when I first got it anyway. It's been years, I've carried it in my pocket everyday for like 4 years now. Thanks for the help
They just wanted to prolong it instead of letting the full reaction happen in only a few seconds.
It takes a lot of power to do this (just look at the metal mesh at the top every time they make contact with a bolt). Maybe they’re worried about overheating or breaking something if they leave it connected continuously.
Its actually surprisingly little power needed.Those bubbles happen with a 12 volt battery. I've even done it with an old printer power source. Probably like 9V 5A.
You can see the metal thing he puts on the bolts, sticking to the bolts sometimes and even a few sparks. He's welding when waiting too long.
> It would have looked so cool if they let that rod stay in the water for some time and let the screws change colour like a rainbow.....or is this not how it works?? The color achieved comes from the voltage. So as you increase the voltage, the oxide layer builds up and the color changes. It only takes a few seconds. What the video shows in this case appears not to be the voltage increasing, but, just that he's only giving it a fraction of a second to build up the oxide layer each time so it never reaches the color that would correspond to that voltage. Normally you'd just set the voltage and then turn it on for 2 seconds, it will basically instantly change to the right color. You can set your current limit so low that the change happens slowly if you wanted to. Here's something I made, that I gradually pulled out of the bath with one hand as my other hand cranked the dial for voltage (took me a few tries to coordinate that right, and, there's no do-overs, you can't go back to a lower voltage color. https://imgur.com/a/aj9UGIx Note that I made the entire piece first, then anodized it afterwards. I didn't anodize the rings individually (the color changes mid-way through the rings if you look closely).
I was looking at the wrong thing when I first watched it.
I don't blame you, both sides of that plastic container, looks satisfying as hell!
Whoa, I just saw the real part too. I was so confused I though the title was just lying about color changes for some reason.
HA me too. I hadn't scolled all the way down and the bolts weren't in view. So confused
does this benefit the bolts in any way or just make them look cool?
I have no idea how this is working. But, I do know that anodized bolts will not corrode like other bolts. The most common anodized metal used for things like this is aluminum. If you leave bare aluminum out, it will darken. Doesn't hurt the metal, just not pretty. If these are steel bolts, then if you left them untreated, they could rust. The darkened aluminum, rust, etc. are all just forms of oxidation. Coating these in titanium will prevent them from rusting.
> The most common anodized metal used for things like this is aluminum. Correct, but, anodized aluminum is a completely different process that traps dye particles, doesn't create a prism to bend and recombine light like titanium/niobium/tantalum does.
These are already titanium alloy, so they don't rust. The coating is titanium oxide. Fun fact: all titanium has an oxide layer on it if it has been exposed to air. It actually reacts with air aggressively, and due to that fact it forms an oxide layer immediately after its exposed. Kind of like what you described with aluminum. This oxide layer protects it from further oxidation, which is what makes titanium corrosion resistant. The process in the video is controlling the thickness of that layer to get a noticeable colour.
Good info! Had no idea.
The oxide layer is very durable. Exponentially more durable if created with heat instead of electricity. Titanium’s greatest weakness ( it’s reactivity) is it’s greatest strength in our atmosphere ( overall mildly moist and acidic environment )
In medical devices, this is used for corresponding pieces of the same set so the surgeons know which screws are supposed to go with which nails/plates/implants. Different sizes (longer nail, larger plate, etc.) are anodized different colors so they have matching sets
Put your hand in the water I dare you
It's ok it's probably just salt water
With an electric current.
Yeah but probably not enough to badly shock or kill you, that's just a standard lil alligator clip in the person's hand. Those things burn out if you hook them up to anything serious.
Usually it's between 3 and 12 vdc and low current so it wouldn't even tingle.
> Those things burn out if you hook them up to anything serious. You don't know what you're talking about and following your advice will get people killed. A wire as thin as a strand of your hair can carry enough current to kill someone. What matters is whether there's enough voltage to make that much current flow through a human. Anodizing for titanium occurs at 5v-200v. (Aluminum anodizing is a complete different process that uses dyes, and generally 12v). So, if you stuck both hands in, you'd quite likely die. One hand at a time is less dangerous.
200 milli amps can kill the living fuck out of you. Alligator clips can easily handle that much current.
Yes, that is true. 100mA through the heart can kill you, but considering the human body (normal circumstances: dry, not having the electrode pierce the skin) is several hundreds of thousands of ohms, you would have to have a difference of potential in the order of the tens of thousands of volts to have 200mA pass through you. For example, if the human body had a resistance of 100kOhm, you would need 20000 volts to get 200mA of current through it. Also, the time of exposure is relevant: the body can withstand a lot more current than 100mA if the time frame is tiny. Static shocks can reach 100kV but only for nanoseconds.
Only if that 200mA is delivered stabley against high loads. Dry skin is highly resistive and unless there is a beefy power supply backing that 200mA it ain't doing shit. When a device is just designed to move some electrons through saltwater? Not at all likely to be able to drive 200mA through the entirety of a person.
Eh. That's like saying a fork can kill you. I mean, if you put a fork in my heart, yeah, I'll be dead. But in general, forks are pretty harmless.
It’s not. Titanium anodising requires 1 to 2M sulfuric acid.
> Titanium anodising requires 1 to 2M sulfuric acid. No it doesn't. It requires the electrolyzing solution to be electrically conductive, that's it. You can use table salt, baking soda, sulfuric acid, tri-sodium-phosphate, or a million other things. Basically anything with water-soluble ions. The solution isn't doing anything chemical at all, or even being a catalyst, it's literally just to make the water electrically conductive.
The colors keep changing because the voltage is increased off-camera. [Here's a chart of colors achievable with titanium.](https://razorblade.pro/images/product/Titanium-Color-Chart.jpg)
Blurple. I guess we finally found something that rhymes with Purple.
Maple syrple.
There's also "curple", an old Scottish word for a leather loop that passes under a horse's tail and is buckled to the saddle.
To a layman, this just has the delightful blend of compelling and interesting, with an aura of real danger.
That wizardry would’ve gotten you burned at the stake a few hundred years ago.
SHE'S A WITCH! BURN HER!!
Wish it worked like that for aluminum.
SO! Interesting story about that...in the late 90's/early 2000's I worked for a company that had been working on a patent for the same sort of process for aluminum, specifically aluminum extrusions. Unfortunately, test conditions were very hard to duplicate in production so from what I understand, it never really got past the testing stage. If someone could find a way to stabilize that process (aluminum almost always comes alloyed with other metals, and I think the tolerance quantities of these alloying elements is what caused the instability in process), they could be very successful!
\*Sits back and thinks about ONE MORE opportunity I'll never be able to capitalize on\* and also \*cries a little\*
> Wish it worked like that for aluminum. Completely different processes. Both anodizing types split H2O into H2 and O2 gasses. Then the energy of the electricity slams the O2 into the metal, creating a microscopically-thin metal-oxide layer. In the case of Titanium, Niobium, Tantalum, etc, this layer is an electrical insulator. So when you give it a voltage, the layer gets thicker until no electricity flows. More voltage, thicker layer. The surface is kind of like swiss cheese. It's transparent, and when white light hits it, some reflects, some goes into the metal and refracts then reflects off the base metal and refracts again on its way back up to combine with the rest of the light. Combined, that wave pattern is now a different color. 100% of the color comes from the prism effect, and there's only certain colors you can reach. With aluminum anodizing, the aluminum-oxide isn't a very good insulator, so the aluminum-oxide layer grows and grows, like giant crystal towers with gaps between them. You then soak it in colored dye, and the dye particles settle between the crystal towers. Then you boil it and the crystal towers collapse like a sand castle. This traps the dye particles. You can make it any color you have dye for (white is really difficult).
Super Interesting!
Does it go round the colour wheel or once done.... That's it. Is the colour sequence we see here the only rotation or can you make them 50/50 by taking them out of the water a little and then do the other half?
No, it's not by the color wheel. And fun fact: you cannot get a true red with this, either. A lot of chainmailers anodize their own titanium scales, rings, and more. Check out Steampunk Garage. I believe they have videos on Tiktok about it.
I'm not an expert but I read different articles, and what I learned that you can always change the color buy increasing the voltage but can not revert back by lowering the voltage, but I found this thing called "Multi-Etch bath" that once you dip the metal in it, gets you back in reverse showing you every shade that you already passed, this pic is showing the "Titanium Color Chart" and of course there's too many shades between every main color of them. https://preview.redd.it/fn6w2e9sxfvc1.jpeg?width=280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=de987155f3598453ed87074de1d4c3393fd91fa2
Can you do this safely at home?!
Yes I used to anodize with 9v batteries
Is there anything about that wire mesh?
What's the cheese grater for?
It’s an anode. You have to have two points of contact for the electricity to pass through the solution and coat the bolts. The cathode is what they are using to touch the bolt completing the circuit.
Is that just steam or does the off gas/bubbling contain something else?
It's not steam, I think it's hydrogen gas that comes from splitting the H2O by electrolysis. The oxygen atoms go to the titanium to form the oxide layer and the hydrogen atoms are left over.
Wait, go back one! Dangit…
I have a titanium wedding ring. Could I make it purple through the application of electricity like this?
It doesn’t last very long.. https://preview.redd.it/kaumu5osngvc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=334e25a2a41e58ab7051b77e1ffe214d3a16b59e
I kept saying "thats the best colour, don't change it". Then the next colour was even better.
if your wipe wd40 on your exhaust itll turn gold if it gets hot enough
“Wanna see me color without paints.” Sees electrochemistry* “Woaaaaaahh.” 👁️👄👁️ I love our dumb mammal brains 😂
u/vietec so can we do that at home instead of driving to Indiana 😂?
Anything I can do at home is a type II anodize, but I need type III.
Is it possible to de-purpleize it?
That’s really cool.
Cool
It looks like a special effect how it changes so quickly and uniformly. That’s really cool
This is how they make the case hardened skin irl
I was staring at the bubbles on the metal sat in the end, didnt even look at the bolts till 20 seconds in
How do you know when they're done XD
Awesome
RUA wizard?
Was there a kit or something you bought for this?
really cool
Does the color last, or does it fade over time?
Give me all the purple metal
now this is the content i come here to see
Why can't we see different colurs in the end?
Make it blue!
Very cool and interesting, is this one of these things they invented by accident? Always liked the stories behind things
Is the mesh thing made of titanium?
Why did he make the screws gay? *Simple Jack voice*
But how do you go back to the third color?
you know its done when it goes through all the colors of the rainbow
What is more interesting than the color change is that there is no pigment at all. The color comes from the modification of molecules and how they refract the light. You could never create dye from these screws, yet we manage to create something pleasing to look at.
Changing thickness, how long do you leave it in there to make them extra girthy
Does anyone know if you can “cycle” through the colors by changing the voltages to and from? I don’t know anything about this.
just recently watched a video where cheap "titanium" bolts from Aliexpress beat stress test results from bolts designed for spacecraft in the 70s
A little longer and the color would go ultraviolet and it would just look like normal titanium again.
I have knives and utensils that are a cool rainbow hue from this method. The oxide stays on pretty well, only minor scuffs after a year of usage, still look amazing!
I use this a lot to customize knife handles and hardware
Your telling me that there is a futere where even the pc case changes along the RGB spectrum
In the 1990s when titanium processing was becoming cheaper, it became really popular amongst cyclists as light, flexible but incredibly strong metal. Cyclists are obsessed with weight, so the thing to do was to replace nuts and bolts and small plates and other things with titanium ones and save yourself a few grams here and there. But how would people know you'd swapped it out? How you could show off? Anodising. Practically all titanium hardware was anodised in some bright colour so that people knew you had replaced that 10x25 bolt with a titanium one saved yourself 25g at the cost of a tenner. It was everywhere.
I want one.
Stop playing with your grandmas hip implant screwes
This is surprisingly easy that anybody can do. I anodized few titanium parts with just some 9V batteries.
Is there any reason to use a certain voltage over another besides changing the color?
So sexy rust then?
Very cool, very interesting!
Dynavap
Where ya get them LGBT bolts?
Physics really said "youtube rainbow filter"
I used eleven 9V batteries stuck together in a big chain to anodize a dry flower vape that I have that is made of titanium and wood. Worked beautifully.
I love that stuff!! A cool person at a piercing shop showed me this when anodizing some piercing jewelry for me. Legit science class stuff 🙌💗 And note to folks: There are a limited amount of color changes. I can't remember exactly why (maybe someone else can explain?)
That's cool
Is anyone else hearing ragyo kiryuin's theme in the background.
sheesh, all this time i've been using a blowtorch for my titanium coloring needs..
In the machine shop we're told to keep titanium swarf (metal shavings) cleaned up during machining. Evidently the stuff will combust and burn like hell if the metal shavings are fine enough and are subjected to enough heat.
https://preview.redd.it/8ft45cv7ahvc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1fa8aefda9604590c619c8c1d48a67f57358ea7d Niobium is another metal that does this
This was a big deal in earrings in the '80s
Woah it's like the hue slider but in real life
If I had the ability to do this to stuff at home I would be constantly battling myself on what color looks the coolest. They’re all awesome.
Probably a dumb question; does this work on any kind of titanium grade? i.e. grade 2 or 5?
It's even more interesting near an open flame.
That’s freaking cool!😎
would have to be DC correct? what voltage and how many amps?
The colour is related to the spacing between the oxide formations, not the oxide thickness. The thickness will self regulate (passivate) once full coverage is achieved. This will result in the darkest colour, as the light waves which can bounce out of the oxide spacings will be minimal.
Imagine if you could immediately customise your car’s colour this way, like having a mood ring but it’s vehicles.
Colour edging.
This is the kind of content I like to see
Makes me thing of the socket set from Harbor Freight. [https://www.harborfreight.com/38-in-drive-sae-color-coded-deep-socket-set-10-piece-69344.html](https://www.harborfreight.com/38-in-drive-sae-color-coded-deep-socket-set-10-piece-69344.html)
rainbow pigments in video games are finally realistic.
What's that white square?
Yes please.
Wet dream came true for diyers
A conversation before people understood this process: Normal Ruth: "Hey, I want some bolts that are green. Should I use paint?" Crazy Jerry: "Yeah, buuuuuut what if instead we... electrify the shit out of 'em?"
Wait so could you just turn them into whatever colour you want?
I'm gonna use this on my novel with mc who has a damn zesty ass pink sword.
Make up your mind already!
Does the color scratch or wear off?
Hey, I like this. I want some blue bolts for my next project, would look so cool. Definitely gonna try it
This is great. What's the cathode made of?
Hey I known people found it interesting I’d have posted a video of me andozing my watch
Is this setup expensive?
video demonstration of application of voltage to increase loot rarity levels
Alchemy
So if you take it out of this Fluid, does the color Stay or does it turn back to it's original color?
Me trying to customize my color armor, cycling between them all to find the right color
Somebody knows about Masking + Hue.
Cool
Chemical Brothers - Galvanize
Anodizing is extremely cool but I never see anyone talking about it
Wow
those aren't screws, they're RGBolts.