We have been asked to gold plate some unusual things over the years. Common ones are baby shoes, golf balls or other sports memorabilia. It’s a bit tricky to gold plate non metal items but it can be done (and is becoming easier for A Class due to advancements we are making in our process R&D!).

When it comes to metal items there are not usually any problems other than whether you have a gold plating tank big enough (like for a car body??)

We are seeing more customers now looking to do something different for their car or bike.  Sometimes its gold wheels or gold plated door handles.  One guy had all the structural fittings in his engine bay plus all external handles and fittings gold plated. The car was a deep green colour and the gold looked spectacular against it!

A Class Metal Finishers Pty Ltd would be delighted to assist you make your gold plated dreams come true!

Electroplating is an example of a process sometimes considered more appropriate to hold in-house. However the trend in recent years is toward outsourcing of this process. Why?

Consider these points:

Outsourcing lets everyone focus on what they’re best at.

Metal finishing is most often just a small part of the final product. Outsourcing any plating or finishing required enables the manufacturer to focus on their own areas of expertise (e.g. designing and making the product), without unnecessary distraction from ‘non core’ activities. Your metal finishing service provider has chosen that field as their core business, therefore they are better positioned to develop and control surface finishing processes, skills and knowledge whilst managing complexity and improving the quality.

Increasing Environmental Awareness has most serious manufacturers seeking to reduce impacts. Outsourcing is an opportunity to score ‘green points’ through elimination of hazardous processes. At the industry level, the servicing of a number of manufacturers by a single electroplating service provider, enables economy of scale to kick in – a real plus for the overall impact on our environment. Of course outsourcing also enables the manufacturer to diminish the risks associated with managing hazardous processes from both environmental and employee safety perspectives.

Activity in Skills Development for Electroplaters and Polishers at the broad industry level has severely diminished in the last 10 or so years. Is it feasible for a manufacturer, whose core business might be product development, design or production, to be burdened with responsibility to develop and manage skills/knowledge in a specialised field like electroplating?

There are obviously many more elements to the make or buy decision. Ultimately the ‘right’ decision will be the one that best supports the manufacturer’s endeavour to “deliver a product of the required specification and quality to its customer at the right price”.

Copper plating before nickel and chrome plating

Copper Plating

• Copper is usually used as an “undercoat” in most common plating processes (e.g. “triple chrome” is copper, nickel then chrome plated)
• The colour of newly plated copper (salmon pink) makes it appealing as a metal colour alternative, however it tarnishes quite easily.  A coating or two of lacquer straight after plating can help preserve the colour but it’s best not to expose it to weather extremes or the lacquer will break down and cause the copper to tarnish
• To achieve an aged bronze look, you can blacken the copper after plating then buff away the black at the high points, leaving an “antique” effect.
• Copper plating can assist to rebuild poor or damaged surfaces by plating additional thickness onto parts.
• There are two main varieties of copper plating – acid copper and cyanide copper. Acid copper is a safer coating for health and environment, however cyanide copper performs better in applications involving aluminium substrates. Acid copper is the most common type used for plating.  When plating aluminium alloys, some prefer to nickel plate straight onto the surface to avoid the use of cyanide copper, and this is possible, however this can sometimes be difficult to control and achieve good quality results.

Copper plating blackened then polished to achieve antique effect known as "Florentine Bronze"

Gold plating can be used in electronics and high tech products for creating superior corrosion resistance and conductivity enhancement. The gold plating process used is known as “high purity gold plating”. This process ensures as high as possible purity of the gold deposit on the surface for maximum performance.  The gold coating behaves like a filter for conduction of sound and current more smoothly.  High purity Silver has similar conductive properties and is often used in Radio Frequency applications.

Examples of electronic items often gold plated are – sound system parts, antenna parts, computer connections and adapters, computer internals, communication devices, and so on.

I recently bought a new TV and to connect it to other devices I was sold a HDMI cable that had gold plated connections. Whilst I could have bought a standard nickel plated one, I was advised that the gold plated version is highly recommended for best performance of the communications equipment.

The look of high purity gold plating is a dull, deep yellow. Unlike decorative gold plating which is bright and somewhat harder wearing. Because of the softness of high purity gold plating it is not recommended for surfaces which will be subject to high wear.

High purity gold plating results in a dull velvety appearance

A good plater can ensure the gold plating process is performed properly. It is also advisable to seek advice from your plating service supplier at the product design stage to ensure good planning and maximum benefit from the process.

A Class Metal Finishers Pty Ltd can provide further advice on the high purity gold or silver plating processes.

We feel like we’ve come a long way after starting up in 1989 with just 3 employees!  Couldn’t even count the amount of metal we’ve electroplated onto people’s products (in the hundreds of tonnes).  It would be great get some comments on this blog from customers we have plated or polished jobs for.  What have you thought about our service?  Did you think we’d make it to 20 years? What are your predictions for our future?

Here’s a pic of “the boys” taken on our “birthday”

From left: Phil, Greg & Rod Wood - some of A Class's owners and founders

Have a great day and hope to see or hear from you some time soon!