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Why Gold Plating?

In this review of gold you will learn about how Sharretts Plating Co., Inc. (SPC) handles and applies gold. Why should gold be plated versus using pure solid gold components? This article will address industrial applications and stay away from cosmetic and beauty (in other words, functionality and not appearance).

Understanding the value of gold will help to answer the following questions before deciding on gold as the proper choice of material. First, what is the function of the component or part being made? What features will be necessary to make it work? What duration of time must it last? And finally, are there more economical alternatives that would suffice?

Gold Plating: Common Applications

Simplifying the selection by market niche and consumption will make the task of determining if you want gold plating easier. Engineering purposes, that is to say atypical uses such as a lubricant, pure or alloyed with other metals for improved brazing quality of low oxidation, and another well unknown application is for heat shielding. Electronics are the main consumer of gold. For reliability in all climates hot or cold, wet or dry, gold is employed to withstand corrosion, wear and abrasion, while maintaining its remarkable conductivity and low contact resistance. The main electronic components requiring gold are connectors, contacts and switches, as well as its use as a semi-conductor for inter-connecting various parts on printed circuit boards, e.g. transistors. Dentistry is a common application for gold plating. Its uses are for false teeth, crowns and caps. Gold is electroformed from a mold created from the plaster impressions taken during a normal office visit. An up and coming use of gold is as a catalyst. New research shows that gold can be a more effective catalyst than platinum due to its low temperature during catalysis versus platinum. Thus gold plating is being used in new catalytic converters and tested for the next generation of automobiles. Miniaturization is on the forefront of gold use. Engineers are now able to build newer materials faster and repair old worn down substances with much more ease. The creation of micro electronic mechanical systems (MEMS) allows doctors and surgeons to perform non-invasive surgery and implant long lasting devices to improve and sustain a being's health. Gold seems not to cause the immune system to react negatively or cause an auto-immune response. Next to the last major user for gold plating is Space (Aviation/Aeronautics). Used in rocket engines as well as heat shields from solar radiation and the highly corrosive environment.

Now that we have a clear portrait of gold functionality, what applications can Sharretts Plating Company provide with plating and electro-forming this material? Our electroplating company provides 99% of all its gold plating to the electronics industry, which are presently being employed in all of the above described industry sectors except the microtechnology, dentistry and some of the more unfamiliar uses in building materials and metal working. SPC applies gold by electro-deposition or immersion plating (which uses no electricity at all). SPC's means of gold plating are by rack plating, barrel plating, and most of all reel-to-reel plating (otherwise known as continuous plating) in selective areas to reduce overall consumption whereas rack and barrel are typically plate over the whole part unless special masking is done prior to the plating. So to recap the key arenas of gold, they are electronics, catalysts, special engineering uses (nanotechnology and medical i.e. dentistry and bio-tech, chemical processing) and aviation/aeronautics. Refer back to paragraph three for specific uses of gold to answer, "What are its uses?"

The key argument for the use of gold comes down to reliability versus cost. Gold will undoubtedly grow to more than $2,000 per troy ounce.

The duration of time gold should last is variable depending on the thickness of its deposit and to what types of exposure (i.e. corrosive and or blunt force). There is no better answer other than real life testing and correlated laboratory testing.

When in doubt about whether or not to use gold, choose gold! Other metal coatings that can be substituted for gold are platinum series metals (platinum, palladium plating and silver plating), tin and tin-alloys, and in some cases nickel alloys. All but platinum are less expensive than gold. They all have desirable and undesirable qualities as compared to gold. A superior quality of platinum metals is they are harder and can absorb more carbon from catalytic converter reactions than gold. An undesirable quality is that they tend to be more prone to hydrogen embrittlement and internal damage such as stress cracks down to basis material.

So what's gold good for? Gold is the "R" factor for creating components that must last an infinite time table. Please feel free to e-mail any questions pertaining to this article to: spc@sharrettsplating.com