I was reading in a fairly recent issue of "Sport Aviation" magazine ( I think) and read an article about a kit helicopter that had an in flight failure of a structural part. They traced it back to "acid etching" of the metal to facilitate the corrosion control method being applied.

Does this mean that we should not be using Alodine on structural parts such as the rear wing attachment brackets or rear upper strut fitting for example? I don't remember reading anything in the zenith literature saying not to.

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I think that the article actually referred to anodizing rather than alodine. They are two very different processes.
I think that the article also differentiated between anodizing and powder coating also two different proceeses or I read the article and then looked up the difference, as I have used quite a bit of powder coating( Struts, jury struts, and these are also considered structural) and was relieved to see that powder coating is safe...
The specific process that was used in the helicopter parts was "black" or "hard" anodizing is intended for wear resistance on non-structural parts as it tends to make parts brittle. Regular clear or color tinted anodizing for corrosion protection does not have that problem. Alodine is chromic acid also protects without making parts brittle.

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