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Can I deposit gold directly
onto CHROME?
It can be done. It is an old
process, one that has a limited value.
24K Gold will not stick to a
bright quality chrome finish.
To get it to stick, it needs to
be an what might be best described as an acid gold.
To get Gold to stick to a bright
quality chrome finish, the surface needs a treatment.
We can provide you with a gold that is basically
a "Woods Gold Strike" and works as an acid gold strike so you can deposit gold
and give adhesion of the gold on Tin-Nickel, Stainless Steel, Moly-manganese, Kovar,
Titanium, Molybdenum, Passive Nickel and other difficult to plate metals.
If this gold sounds NEW, it is not. It is an old
formula. Does it work? Yes. It is necessary? NO.
Gold solution formulations designed to avoid
stripping the chrome, MUST ETCH the surface of the chrome, to get the gold to stick, which
means you will get a duller gold finish than you will on the standard three chemical
process. The reason is the etching of the bright reflective chrome finish.
Stripping the chrome, activating the nickel and
then plating the gold will get a higher brilliance in the mirrored reflection of the gold
off of the bright nickel surface. The reason is simple. The bright nickel surface you
expose when you strip the chrome is the surface that you will deposit the gold onto. A
bright nickel surface gives the high luster, and mirrored type reflection when the gold
mirrors the surface it is on.
Experienced gold platers know that gold simply
mirrors the surface it goes onto. This is why tank platers do not want OLD CORES (old
script removed from the vehicles and sent in for credit) and will not give CREDIT for OLD
CORES. Worn chrome comes out with a dull finish.
Etching the chrome to get the gold to stick
directly to the chrome will not come out as bright.
I expect we could mix in a quantity of nickel so
the gold would deposit with nickel as a combination hardener and enhancement for the
reflective surface. Any nickel added will cut down on the amount of the Karat on the
piece. 24K is pure gold, 18K is 18 parts gold and 6 parts of something else. 18K gold does
not look the same as 24K gold.
Bright gleaming 24K gold is the desired finish.
If we mix in another metal, such as the nickel, it will offset some of the 24K gold.
The old tried and well established practice of
STRIP THE CHROME which exposes the layer of nickel below the chrome, ACTIVATE THE EXPOSED
NICKEL and DEPOSIT & MOLECULARLY BOND 24K gold to the exposed and activated nickel,
works all the time.
Speaking of time, stripping the chrome is easy
to do with most of the Gold Plating systems on the market with enough amps. If a person
doing the work can not strip off all of the chrome, a so called one-step chemical system
will not resolve the problem.
Since it works so well and the time difference
is only a few minutes per vehicle for top quality, you have to ask yourself what your
customers want. 24K Gold or NOT EXACTLY 24k Gold.
The process described above is typically
refereed to as a 3 step process or a 3 chemical process.
Since the largest single problem we have in gold
plating is not stripping the chrome enough, attempting to skip past the chrome stripping
step will not resolve that problem, it will probably make it worse. The eventual result
will probably wind up worse than not stripping the chrome enough. The reason hinges on the
physical impact on the script/emblem or item you are working on.
If you accidentally overlook stripping a part of
the chrome, you can go back and strip it more.
If you deposit gold and do not get the etching
job done 100%, 100% of the time, going back to fix a problem spot, can cause you
difficulties.
Stripping the chrome gives you a clear view of
the base material you are working on. If you can see the nickel finish, you can deal with
it at the time you are plating so you can get a top quality result.
You also wind up with a higher brilliance with
the standard three chemical process. The three step process does not etch the finish and
dull it.
Actually, we have cleaned the surface of plain
stainless steel and deposited gold directly onto the stainless. Although it worked, we far
prefer the aspect of using a "WOODS NICKEL STRIKE" based on the experience with
the chemistry.
We have experiments with ELECTRO POLISHING as
well, using the 'OFF THE SHELF" 30 AMP Power Supply, and then going forward with
normal gold plating. It worked good too.
If you want a gold plating solution that can go
directly onto problem surfaces, we can offer that.
We believe that the BEST RESULTS come from
working in the standard three step process.
We have whatever you want.
We have what you need too.
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