You want the hardest most durable finish you can put on aluminum, and it happens to be white? Here you go..
http://www.whyco.com/images/Cerafuse_aluminum.pdf
I could try to explain how tough this stuff is, but I wouldn't succeed. You have to see it to believe it. It is absolutely unbelieveable.
Wow, from what I’m reading, it’s 3-4 times harder than HA-III anodizing?
Yep. One other nice feature of the coating is that it will survive to whatever temperature the aluminum itself will survive. In other words, the coating will not be damaged, degraded, discolored or removed by heat until the point at which the aluminum melts.
Cool stuff.
PPtk
The process of applying CeraFuse involves plasma discharge with temperature over 5000 Celsius… I wonder how much it costs to apply this to lights. How practical is this?
In reasonable quantity, it's actually very affordable. We do some parts with this process, and the cost is roughly 2X of Type III Anodizing.
That’s pretty nice.
Would it be possible to do a big GB and then have them coated?
I would love to have some hard lights that are very very tough.
They're very nice people. The man to ask for is Peter Masella.
I, unfortunately, do not have time to manage a group buy - but if someone else wants to, I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem.
I never really thought about it before, but I will probably strip the anodize off of one of my lights and send it with our next batch. It would be really nice. It's just astonishing how hard this stuff is. Tough as nails doesn't even describe it because you can grind down a steel nail on aluminum coated with this stuff :)
PPtk
Thats odd. It doesn’t entirely look like a wear pattern especially around the model name.
Try boiling just the body in water for 30 minutes (sealing it). If you don’t boil the head you could see if that continues to fade while the body doesn’t.
How long have you had it?
That’s great, let us know how the light comes out.
What are some typical applications of the coating?
Aerospace stuff, the HTC One smart phone, Anything that needs to be very hard and very abrasion resistant. Anything that needs to be corrosion protected and will experience extreme temperatures (Anodize doesn't technically hold up past about 175C).
Well I removed anodize(with laser engravings) from few flashlight.
It is not so hard but it is sure messy…
Sandpaper grit 200 350 500 is enough + polish after that and you will get mirror like finish(I personally don’t like that)
Flashlight is “O” profile so you can sandpaper only by old gunsmith method of vertical grinding with bench vise and rubber holder which must go under flashlight.
Would love to have a favorite light done in that!
The Solarforce S2200 is supposed to be HAIII, it’s huge with large surfaces and the feel of it is marvelous, silky satin to the touch. 
So let me get it all straight in my mind. You have anodizing, Type I or II or III determined by thickness or depth. The deciding factor is really only between I and II as to one having a color bath between the anodizing tank and the sealing tank, the other bypassing this step. Is this correct? Pretty cool to know.
I do know this, the shiny anodizing is not necessarily crappy anodizing. I have an aluminum block that I made to hold an aluminum hex bar with aluminum radial arms all assembled together to mount a reflector onto a tripod. I then sent the pieces to a place in Forida called Six2 and had it all anodized purple. They’re very nice, shiny and just gorgeous. The shine comes from a high gloss polish before the anodizing. I polished it all up to a mirror finish before sending it in. The acid bath did take the shine down from mirror finish, but it’s still very nice. The base block is 3Lx3Hx2W inches and has my company name laser etched into each wide side. The hex bar is 3’ long, the radial arms accommodate a 42” reflector.
Almost correct. There is type I, IB, IC, II, IIB and III - These define (among other things) the type of acid used in the bath and the total coating thickness. Each of those types can then be of Class 1 (Non-Dyed) or Class 2 (Dyed).
For Class 2 (colored) applications, type II or type III are most common. The other types are much more difficult to dye, and can only be dyed to certain colors.
Anodize itself is not shiny or matte. The base material defines this. A polished surface will anodize shiny/glossy whereas a tumbled or bead-blasted surface will anodize matte.
PPtk
Great thread! So, to clarify, when a manufacturer says HA-III they mean type III (hard anodization)?
How about sandblasting ?
^ how about grease lightning or easy off oven cleaner?
Helios, I think those products work because they contain sodium hydroxide which is highly corrosive.
I think people just use that stuff because it more readily available then straight up lye (NaOH).
Drain cleaners work. They contain mostly lye too.
Btw Chole, I’m sure you’ve heard it before but… your a geek. 
Not meant as an insult.
Ding ding. I’ve stripped several Al parts (lights and other) with NaOH, works well and super easy, way easier than sanding it off. Let it soak about 25 minutes then just brush it off wh a steel or brass brush, works flawless and gives an amazing brushed finished look.
Greased lightning sounds like the easiest, least toxic method by far.
MSDS for Greased Lightning indicates its active ingredient is sodium hydroxide / lye. No fumes, no pitting though.
Seems like the options for stripping anodizing is lye, lye, sodium hydroxide, lye, NaOH, lye & sanding. 