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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
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for Metal Finishing since 1989
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PVD vs. e-coat: durability, appearance, cost?
I am very curious about the use of titanium nitride underneath gold plating for costume jewelry. I have customers who are using anywhere from 3-5 mils to 6-8 mils gold, often with e-coating on top.
Anyone familiar with the cost of e-coating and titanium nitride who can provide me with a comparison in cost? Would replacing e-coat with titanium nitride be cost neutral? Would it be a more effective option?
Also, does the color of titanium nitride work only with a shiny gold finish? Some of our customers use an oxidized or even matte gold. If the gold plating were to wear off, would the titanium nitride beneath be very obviously different in color?
One more- :) is a barrier layer still required between the base metal and the titanium nitride?
Anyone who can answer these questions is much appreciated.
Thank you in advance!
buying agent - New York, New York
May 9, 2011
Q. Hello I am using Gold Colored E-coating currently, I am asking out of curiosity, Operating cost-wise E-coating and PVD which one is cheaper as I Have heard in PVD a small part of real Gold is used in the process.
Andrew Trip- Spain
November 1, 2019
A. Hi Andrew. Unfortunately such questions are virtually never answerable in the abstract. There is just such an incredible range of situations between building siding on the one end and watch hands on the other. Usually, but depending on the substrate, PVD may require electroplating underneath it, which means it would cost more that e-coating.
But without knowing what the application is, the environment it will see, the necessary pretreatment, the size of the components, or the production volume I don't think anyone can realistically say. No, it is not necessary to use real gold in the PVD process, though; TiN or ZrN and similar "gold-look" coatings can be applied. Logistics matter too: your inquiry says you are from Spain, but the posting came from Thailand (maybe you're not writing from company headquarters) ... theoretical cost differences may not matter for much if a service isn't actually available where it needs to be.
Please give us the particulars. Thanks.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
November 2019
A. Hi Andrew,
We use both PVD and e-coatings at our factory. The power bill from PVD makes it much more costly than e-coating. However, PVD offers much better durability and is much faster.
- Katikati, New Zealand
November 5, 2019
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