Guides / Finishing
The Finishes to Reach For When Anodising Will Not Do
September 21, 2026
Anodising covers most keyboard finishing, but it only works on aluminium and it only reaches colours a dye bath can reach. The moment your design includes brass, copper or stainless, or a colour outside the anodising range, you are choosing from a different set of processes.
Each one adds something to the board and something to your supply chain. Here is the honest accounting.
PVD
Physical vapour deposition puts a very thin, very hard ceramic film onto a part in a vacuum chamber. It is what gives watch cases and high end hardware their gold, bronze, black and gunmetal tones.
Where it fits: weights, badges and small accent parts, almost always. A PVD brass weight will never patina, never wear through and never need a clear coat.
What it costs: a lot, relatively. PVD houses are specialists, batch minimums are real, and a keyboard weight is a small part in a large chamber.
The scheduling catch: it is nearly always a third party. Your machine shop machines the weight, ships it to the PVD house, waits, gets it back and inspects it. That is two extra shipping legs and a queue you cannot see. Ask who does it and what their turnaround is before you commit.
The film is thin, so it barely touches your dimensions. That is one genuine advantage over every other coating here.
Cerakote
A sprayed ceramic polymer coating, originally from firearms, now common on hardware that wants a colour range anodising cannot give.
Where it fits: cases and exterior parts, and it works on aluminium, steel and brass equally, which makes it useful on a multi material board where you want everything the same colour.
What it costs: moderate. More than anodising, less than PVD.
Thickness: meaningful. It builds enough that a tight internal fit needs masking or an allowance designed in.
Texture: a sprayed finish has its own character and it will not look like an anodised part in the same colour. If you mix them on one board, get samples of both together before approving either.
Powder coating
An electrostatically applied powder that is then baked into a film. The industrial workhorse of coloured metal.
Where it fits: cases where you want a bold or unusual colour at a low price, and where the design does not have tight internal fits close to coated surfaces.
What it costs: little. It is the cheapest colour route here by a comfortable margin, and it is available almost everywhere.
Thickness: the highest of the four. Powder builds a genuinely thick film, which rounds sharp edges, fills fine detail and closes up pockets. Mask the fits or design for it.
Durability: good. It chips at an edge rather than wearing, the same weakness every film coating shares against anodising.
Mechanical finishes
Sometimes the answer is no coating at all.
Brushed or bead blasted stainless looks like stainless, permanently, with nothing to scratch through. Polished brass looks extraordinary and then patinas, which is either the feature or the complaint depending on what you told people.
Mechanical finishes are labour, and labour varies between operators more than a bath does. Approve a sample and expect more visible variation across a run than you would from a tank process.
Plating
Nickel, chrome and gold plating exist and turn up on badges and small parts. They are capable and they are also the least common route in this niche, mostly because PVD does a similar job with fewer environmental headaches and better wear.
Choosing, in practice
| Situation | Reach for |
|---|---|
| Aluminium case, colour in range | Anodising |
| Aluminium case, colour out of range | E-coating |
| Brass or copper weight, no patina wanted | PVD, or clear coat on a budget |
| One colour across mixed materials | Cerakote |
| Bold colour, low budget, loose fits | Powder coat |
| Stainless that should look like stainless | Brushed or blasted, no coating |
The rule that applies to all of them
Every finish except PVD adds enough thickness to matter somewhere on a keyboard case, and every one of them except anodising is likely to be a separate vendor.
So two questions go on every RFQ that involves one of these: how much does it build, and who does it. The first protects your fits. The second protects your schedule, which is usually the thing that actually breaks.
Frequently asked questions
Can brass be anodised?
No. Anodising is an aluminium process, and titanium colours by a different mechanism again. Brass, copper and stainless are finished by coating, plating, PVD or mechanical means such as brushing and blasting, or they are left bare to patina.
Is PVD worth it on a keyboard weight?
It is if you want a gold, bronze or black weight that will never patina and never wear through. It adds cost and an extra vendor, so it belongs on a halo product rather than on every run.
Does powder coating work on a keyboard case?
It works, and it builds a thick film. That is fine on external surfaces and a problem on tight internal fits, so mask the fits or design the allowance in. It gives a wide colour range at a low price.
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