Definition of Mill Finishing and Natural Anodizing

What is the difference between mill finished aluminum and anodized aluminum?

Both are aluminum extrusion technical term and both products are extrusion products in the mill.

Mill Finishing
“Mill Finish” is the natural appearance of the aluminum as it comes from the rolling mill or the extrusion mill. It is “as is” with no external mechanical or chemical finishing. In other words, mill finishing is the raw state of aluminum as extruded – no surface treatment.
Natural Anodizing
Anodizing is an electrochemical process that converts the aluminium natural surface into a decorative, durable, corrosion-resistant, anodic oxide finish. It is used to increase the thickness of the natural oxide layer on the surface of metal parts.

Surface and Appearance

Mill Finishing
The extrusion products without any surface treatment. It is simple products after the extrusion processing in the extrusion press.

The appearance is natural colour of aluminium and it is silver, as without any surface treatment, there will be some die lines and marks on the surface and it is widely used in the decoration and finished products.
Natural Anodizing
It is a mill finish with anodizing process, it is high value added products and the production processes will be more and the anodizing colour can in so many colour such as the common type is matt silver, anodized bronze, anodized gold and many more.

The anodizing aluminium surface will be smooth and elegant, so anodizing aluminium profiles are most popular in the market.

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