5052 aluminum alloy as the material for mechanical arm components was chosen as the research object, and its surface was modified by anodization. The single factor method was used for studying the effect of current density during the anodization process on the microstructure and mechanical properties including hardness, friction and wear property, tensile property and elastic-plastic property of the anodized films. The results show that when the current density is 2 A/dm 2 , the compactness and crystallinity of the anodized film are good and the hardness reaches 432.6 HV, which is 2.7 times higher than that of 5052 aluminum alloy. Moreover, the tensile strength and yield strength reach 426.4 MPa and 280.8 MPa, which are respectively 0.9 time and 1.5 times higher than that of 5052 aluminum alloy. The anodized film has strong bearing capacity and resistance to local plastic deformation, a wear rate of only 6.4×10 -4 mm 3 /(N•m) and its elastic recovery coefficient reaches 28.3%, which demonstrates excellent wear resistance. However, when the current density is too high, the hardness of the anodized film will decrease as a result of the decrease in compactness, resistance to local plastic deformation and the decrease in wear resistance, which results in a decrease in tensile property and elastic-plastic property.