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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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Plating Palladium on Sterling Silver
Hello Sirs
I work in the Jewellery industry field, I want to know if sterling silver can be plated with palladium directly or do I need a preplate? Thanks for your help.
Process Engineer - Guatemala
July 26, 2011
My past experience plating Medic Alert bracelets,pendants which were sterling/cast silver which were highly polished/lapped, I found the finish tended to dull somewhat during the ultrasonic cleaning process in order to remove polishing compounds/rouge etc. I found using a silver strike followed by a 5 minute bright silver plate produced a perfect lustrous finish. I plated these parts for 2-3 minutes in the palladium bath followed by a 2 minute rhodium plate. The palladium process is very important for the silver substrate to be rhodium plated, as you cannot plate rhodium directly on silver as you will contaminate the rhodium with silver and there is NO treatment for purification. The pH of the palladium bath should be monitored during the shift as it does have a major impact on the brightness/luster of the deposit. The platinum group of metals have a VERY low tolerance to metallic impurities, so good house keeping habits and proper treatment of parts from various solutions as rinsing, electrocleaners, etc. is extremely important.Good luck.
Eric Bogner- Toronto Ontario Canada
July 29, 2011
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