Meet our line of Aluminum Pan Racks, SHOPCraft Colors.
These are color anodized pan racks for use in your Bakery for display, proofing, and delivery. Or, as you will read below, they are great for use in your candy making process to easily identify
different sizes of racks.
There are many ways that Color Coding can be used and be useful. There are also many reasons
to anodize aluminum pan racks. SHOPCraft Colors are available in Red, Gold, Green, Clear,
Blue, and Black. Get yours in a standard single rack size in a variety of pan levels. Or order
custom for the size of your pans, trays, bins, molds, etc.
About the Anodizing Process….
What is Anodizing?
- Anodizing is a three part process in which the surface of aluminum is hardened and
sealed against oxidation. - First the aluminum is put through a bath of electrolytic components, of which sulfuric
acid is used as the electrolyte. This is used to increase the thickness of the natural oxide
layer on the surface of the aluminum. - Then the aluminum is submerged in a dye to add color, if desired.
- Lastly, the aluminum enters a sealing process thru immersion in a nickel acetate solution.
This fills the pores of the aluminum, thereby creating a barrier to disallow contaminants.
Why Anodize?
- Steel oxidation forms when raw aluminum is exposed to air, creating a surface that tends
to be dirty. - Anodized aluminum is no longer conductive.
- Anodizing allows a dye color to be added for decorative or functional purposes.
Is there benefit to Anodize without color?
- Yes. The anodization process increases corrosion resistance which in turn lengthens the
life of the aluminum.
How long does an anodized coating last?
- The answer here is somewhat subjective. The short answer is, as long as the aluminum
exists. A longer answer would be that conditions will affect the lifetime. A color
anodized rack that is subject to the elements will fade. With a clear anodize, this is not an
issue, and you still have a product sealed against contaminants and corrosion. For a color
that is less subject to fade in sunlight, bronze may be used.
Washing your anodized pan racks:
- Use a neutral solution, or as close to a pH of 7.2 as possible—so just use soap and water.
- Anodized surfaces should not be washed with acidic or caustic solutions, as this will tend
to etch the surface. So, no detergents with silicates!
From the Customer….after using these racks for 4 months…
VandeWalle’s Candies of Appleton, Wisconsin is a chocolate candy maker. They use chocolate
molds to form their product. They had previously cooled the chocolate in the molds by placing
them on an aluminum tray. But this was not providing good airflow.
They decided two things:
1. They needed racks that were sized just for their moulds.
2. They wanted to prevent the ‘black stuff’ that comes off of an aluminum rack when you slide
pans on and off from landing on their chocolates.
The end result has been just as they’d hoped. The SHOPCraft Colors Racks are much more
efficient and the product is cooled faster. The anodized surface is doing exactly what they
wanted it to—keeping their chocolate clean.
In fact, they opted for color anodizing because they thought it would look cool! Also, they have
candy molds that are just a small difference in size.
Now it’s very easy to tell someone, go get 3
of the red racks for this mold, or 4 of the blue racks for another size mold.
CUSTOMER TESTIMONIAL
VandeWalle’s also has a baking division. They already had SHOPCraft racks in use there and
knew this is a good quality product that they won’t have to replace because it fell apart. When
asked if they would recommend the Color Anodized Racks to others, the answer was, “Yes,
definitely. You can buy a cheaper rack anywhere else, but having a premium SHOPCraft rack
with the anodized coating is well worth the money.” Steve VandeWalle — VandeWalle’s Candies