Selective gold plating is used to plate or coat part of an item. This method is commonly used in many industries to help keep the cost of plating to a minimum. Two of the most common forms of plating are silver and nickel. However, gold has important uses also.
Why Gold?
Gold is a unique type of metal. It can be flattened and shaped easily (malleable) in addition, gold can be drawn into wire (ductile). Gold is extremely resistant to corrosion and is unaffected by oxidation.
Most people may not realize this, but gold is one of the most effective conductors of electricity one can use. However, it is not commonly used for conductors because of its price. Gold is sometimes used for electrical connections, contact points, and connection pins, where a high degree of conductivity and corrosion resistance is required.
Gold is easy to solder, making it excellent for many types of electrical contacts. In nature, gold is a soft metal. However, when combined with cobalt, gold is extremely resistant to wear and tear.
Why Gold Plating?
Because gold is so rare and valuable, it would be too expensive to produce items of solid gold. These items would also be very heavy and cumbersome. In addition, because of gold’s softness, many items would not hold up under day to day use. This is why many items are plated with gold and selective gold plating is designed to provide the benefits of gold without the cost of completely plating something with gold.
With selective gold plating, gold can be concentrated on the functional region of the part to be plated. The part not plated is masked to prevent a total gold plate.
The Importance of Purity
When an item is gold plated, gold purity is vital. For example, some types of gold impurities can make it difficult to solder. In these cases, a purer gold must be used, and this will raise the cost.
Underplating
With some items, selective gold plating cannot be applied directly to the metal. Underplatings are used to seal the metal much in the same way a primer coat of paint is applied. If the item to be plated contains certain metals like bronze, copper, or brass, it is especially important to underplate. One of the most common types of underplating metal is made from nickel.
The Importance of Cost
Most companies today must consider operating costs before anything else. If not, it would be difficult to stay in business. This is why selective gold plating is gaining in popularity. However, when selecting a company for your gold plating needs, cost is not always a top priority. For instance, if you choose a service which does not underplate or deliver the right gold purity, you will save money, but quality will suffer.
When you need services for high quality selective gold plating, you can depend on ProPlate. We offer a wide range or electroplating services for business. Check us out online today at Proplate.com for more details.
