Gold, silver and other precious metal plating

Process Gold, silver and other precious metal plating

Silver plating (Ag) is used for decoration, and for providing with good reflection, electrical and thermal conductivity, corrosion and wear resistance, solderability, the coated surfaces.

Gold plating is used in the electronic industry against oxidation and corrosion, and for decoration in many colour variants. It is carried out in either basic, neutral or acid baths.
Platinum is used in thin layers for cars sparking plugs.

Palladium is the cheapest precious metal and it's used for electrical contacts in place of gold. Rhodium is 10 times more expensive than gold, supplies high hardness and wear resistance. Usually it's a thin layer covering previous silver or nickel layers.

Danish Name Elektrolytisk udfældning af ædelmetaller

Category Surface treatments, Electroplating

Materials Coating materials:
Silver (Ag)
Gold (Au)
Platinum (Pt) Rhodium (Rh) Palladium (Pd)

Typical products Cutlery (Ag)
Electric contact (Ag)
Printed circuit (Au)
Watch case (Au)
Water tap (Au)

References Arbeitsgemeinschaft - Galvanotechnik
Degussa AG
Doduco GmbH & Co.
Galvanisk Kompagni A/S

Price notes Each field in the table below displays two cost figures. The first figure on the cell refers to silver-plating, the second one to gold-plating (Au). The cost is calculated for a typical average thickness: 12.5 micron (Ag); 1.75 micron (Au).

DKK/part	5 parts	100	5000
Small (1cm2)	84/84	11/11.5	0.075/0.33
Medium (1dm2)	116/142	21.5/47.5	2.25/29
Large (100dm2)	392/3075	274/2958	211/2911

Price date December 1996

Additional info The cost of the material is the most important factor for gold-plating pricing. For silver-plating is the labour, even if, for large parts, material's cost becomes a variable to be taken into consideration.

Photo Thomas Nissen (Computer graphics)