Gold plating is a process where a thin layer of gold is bonded onto a base metal.
Plating jewelry with gold is an easy process but requires several steps. The piece of jewelry must first be cleaned thoroughly and removed from all pollutants. This is very important as dirt and oil on the base metal will keep the gold layer from bonding correctly. Steam cleaning, ultrasonic cleaning, and electro cleaning are some methods to clean the base metal in order to produce the best results.
Next, a thin layer of high-quality nickel is plated onto the base metal. This is to protect the gold layer from any being impacted by the base metal. As we’ll discuss below, these metals tend to leech into the gold layer. The nickel layer also keeps the base metal from contaminating the gold liquid in the containers used for the plating process.
For the final layer, the jewelry is dipped in the containers with gold and a positive electrical charge is used to fuse the gold onto the base metal. Once the gold plating thickness has been achieved to satisfaction, the jewelry is hung to dry.
