Curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
The authoritative public forum
for Metal Finishing 1989-2025
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Dual tone nickel + gold electroplating
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Quickstart:
When two different types or colors of plating are wanted, the usual approach is to plate the item completely in one of those metals, then use a masking material of some sort (tape, caps, brush-on formula, photosensitive mask) to cover the areas you do not want plated with the second plating material, plate it with that second material, then remove the masking after the plating.
Q. Hi, I am looking for dual tone finish on some of our parts similar to the finish shown in the attached image or link:
Can anyone help me with the process to achieve the same.
by Reid & Goldie
(hard to find & expensive; if you
see a copy cheap, act fast)
on eBay or
AbeBooks
or Amazon
(affil links)
Shop - India
February 18, 2025
A. Hi cousin Shivam.
Progress will be faster if you introduce yourself because I have have no idea of your production level, whether your parts are the same general size and shape, whether they have similar filigree work on them or not, whether the required masking will be simpler or more complex, whether you need true nickel plating and true gold plating, etc.
But in general, it's a matter of nickel plating the whole item, then masking the area that you want to stay nickel, then cleaning and nickel striking, then gold plating and removing the masking.
Whether this is best done with precision hand masking, precut tapes, or photoresist will depend on those unstated factors.
Luck & Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Q. Hi Mr. Ted,
We have a plating and painting workshop in India. We offer water transfer printing, electroless nickel, nickel plating and abs painting.
The parts dimension is around 5 inch X 2 inch. We are looking for true nickel and gold plating.
What kind of masking do you think would be best for fast production for the pattern shown in attached photo.
- India
February 19, 2025
A. Hi Shivam
Photosensitive masking, as used on printed circuit boards, would surely be way faster than precision masking by hand. In principle, you simply put a sheet of UV sensitive material on your parts, expose it to UV light though a photographic negative of the pattern you want, and the masking adheres to the area you want nickel plated and washes off the area to be gold plated.
I don't have enough personal experience with it to know how much of a problem will be caused by the raised filigree work -- you'd have to talk to a vendor of that process -- but I think there are liquid photosensitive masks and ways around any obstacles.
You probably will need to add a Wood's nickel strike before gold plating because the nickel plating will be very passive by the time you've done the masking.
As an alternative to this it might be possible to either simply silk screen a clear coat on to the areas you wish to keep nickel plated ... or to spray a UV-curable clear coat on the whole item and again use photo exposure to retain the clear coat only on the areas you don't want gold plated.
Using a clear coat as the mask would obviously be the fastest, simplest, and least wasteful approach because once applied you would leave it in place, but it would require two, hopefully testable, things to work:
1. That the clear coat is aesthetically and otherwise acceptable on the nickel plated areas.
2. That the clear coat serves as a satisfactory mask for the nickel strike and gold plating.
Obviously high production methods like this require development effort.
Luck & Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
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