Matting

The matting process lends a matt structure to a high-gloss surface. This is often achieved using abrasive blasting. In this process, a specific quantity of ultra-fine blasting media such as aluminium oxide or glass beads is added to a compressed air jet. The impinging jet effects a microscopic change to the surface structure of the substrate being processed. Different matt to silk-matt effects can be produced through the correct choice of parameters such as abrasive media and jet pressure.

The matt surface structure is retained during a subsequent PVD coating, because the coating is just a few micrometres thick.