Reasons for Jewelry Fading-Analysis of Color Plating Process
April 19,2022
Why do accessories fade? I believe this is a question asked by many friends who love popular accessories.
A large part of the reason for the fading of popular jewelry is actually related to the color plating process. Today we will make a simple analysis on this point.
The color plating process of popular accessories can be simply regarded as makeup technology, such as human makeup technology, the purpose is to make the body more dazzling.
Our common base materials for popular jewelry are generally alloys, copper, and silver, which are easy to rust and oxidize when used alone, so they will be plated on the outside of the metal base. The color is generally gold or silver, that is, gold-plated, silver-plated or platinum. Generally, several layers of makeup will be applied to achieve the effect of concealing and brightening. Ornament makeup is the same. It needs to be plated with several layers of different metal coatings to achieve a bright, uniform and stable state.
At the same time, in order to control the cost, the coating is generally very thin, expressed in microns.
At present, the common popular jewelry color plating processes are electroplating technology and vacuum plating technology.
Plating
The process of plating a thin layer of other metals or alloys on the surface of some metals using the principle of electrolysis, improve wear resistance, corrosion resistance, aesthetics, etc.
Vacuum plating
Under vacuum conditions, various metal and non-metallic films are deposited on the surface of plastic parts by distillation or sputtering to obtain a very thin surface coating, which has the outstanding advantages of fast speed and good adhesion, but the price is also high. Fewer metal types to operate on.
According to the specific operation method, the above color plating process can be divided into rack plating, barrel plating, continuous plating and brush plating, which are mainly related to the size and batch of the parts to be plated.
Rack plating is suitable for products of general size, such as 9 needles, ear hooks, etc. The effect of rack plating is better than that of barrel plating.
Barrel plating is suitable for small pieces, such as split rings, half-wrapped buckles, etc.
Continuous plating is suitable for mass-produced wire and strip.
Brush plating is suitable for partial plating or repair.
We need to understand that the coating on the surface of popular accessories is like makeup, not what it looks like. It will fade over time, but a good coating process and thickness will last longer.