E-coating for silver jewelry

"Electrocoating: a Guidebook for Finishers"
by Electrocoat Association

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A. Silver plated items are generally coated with clear polyurethane electrophoretic lacquer which gives it very good tarnish resistance. Theoretically silver plating does qualify to be called e-coating but in actual practice e-coat refers to electrophoretic coating. Try www.electrocoat.org for complete information of E-coating.

A. First a clarification. Theoretically, E-coat could be any electrolytic coating process. However, in general use, at least in this part of the world, E-coat is usually used for the Electrophoretic coating. And you do go on to mention Silver plating. Electrophoretic clear lacquer coating does give excellent tarnish protection to Silver. Electrophoretic clear lacquer coatings have their standard specifications. I hope this helps.

Regards,

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A. Hi Victor; hi Yossi. I am sensing that you are confused what e-coating is about. As correct and informative as Gurvin's answers are, you may still be confused. Yes, sure, Gurvin covers all the bases when he says that e-coat could theoretically mean any electrolytic coating process. But to people in the business like you, Gurvin and I, "e-coating" or "electrocoating" always has the more specific meaning of electrolytically applying an organic topcoat with properties fairly similar to paint.

People might well call silver plating "electroplating", but they would never call it "electrocoating". Rather, people like you might do silver electroplating of jewelry and, upon realizing that it tarnishes, might look for a way of deterring the tarnishing. One of the ways of deterring tarnishing would be to apply a clear coat to seal the silver surface away from the air; and one of the excellent ways of applying a very thin clearcoat with excellent properties is electrocoating. In electrocoating the object is immersed in a tank with charged polymer ions floating in the solution. Electricity is applied to the part, and this oxidizes or reduces those ions to convert them to a solid organic coating on the parts. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Yes, it can most certainly be done on a very small scale. in fact, a small bath of 20 to 40 liters will be more than sufficient. Being in the US you can get a small laboratory size UF which can be integrated for lacquer recovery.

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Best of luck.

A. Electrophoretic clear lacquer is used extensively for exactly this purpose.

You can go ahead with it and expect complete resolution to this particular problem. Please ensure that the quality of electrocoating lacquer is up to the mark and it does not add to your problems.

Best of luck.

A. The benefit is that the silver will not tarnish and flash gold (is it flash?) will not rub off.
E-coat is the best top coat for this application.
Find a supplier, there are many.

A. Do lacquer over base coat (any colour you want). if you are doing business in bulk you could install an E Coat line for lacquer.

THANKS

A. Hi Karthick. As you can see, this thread has been running for 12 years now, and sometimes it takes a very long time for anyone to improve the answers. Hopefully you'll get a good answer, but please don't wait for it :-)

Lacquer probably refers to a nitrocellulose or another coating which dries, i.e., the solvent evaporates, leaving the solids behind as a lacquer coating. But "drying" is not the only way a clear liquid coating material can be converted to a solid. They can cure as reactions between two components, as in epoxy coating or two-component automotive clearcoats; they can be radiation (UV) cured like women's fingernail lacquers applied by manicure shops; or electricity can convert molecules of polyurethane or other plastic to a solid while the parts are immersed in a solution, as in cathodic electrocoating.

Yes, these coatings can be applied to silver as well as to gold, but things gets a bit confused when we mix silver castings into this discussion because the reason for clearcoating thin gold plating (preventing wear) is rather different than the reason for clearcoating sterling silver objects (preventing tarnish); plus, while lacquering or clearcoating of some sort may be the best idea for gold, rhodium plating might be a better idea for the silver.

Regards,