Gold Finishing, Not Just a Pretty Cover

Gold is one of the most highly-prized and coveted metals in the world.  It comes in an array of beautiful colors, including yellow, white, pink, green, blue — and even shades of purple. This rare element has been used for ornamental purposes by many cultures for thousands of years.

But gold is more than just a pretty embellishment. Not only can its rich glitter add an attractive finish to other materials, but it can also lend important properties that make surfaces last longer and perform better.

Alloys Lend Strength

Because of its soft structure, gold is generally alloyed or blended with other substances to increase its strength. It is usually hardened by alloying with copper, nickel, silver or other metals. This also helps determine its color range.

For example, white gold contains platinum, palladium, nickel, or nickel and zinc. Green gold is usually combined with silver. Rose gold is alloyed with copper and silver.

Gold is often found in nature already alloyed with other metals. When more than 20 percent of silver is present, the alloy is called electrum.

Why Gold Finishing?

Gold has a number of qualities that make it an ideal finishing element, according to the Gold Field Mineral Services (GFMS).  Gold is immune to the effects of air, water, and oxygen, making it the most non-reactive of all metals. Gold doesn’t rust, tarnish or corrode, which makes it virtually indestructible and everlasting. As an example of this, just consider the gleaming gold artifacts discovered in ancient Egyptian tombs and the sparkling golden coins retrieved from sunken ships. 

Gold has one of the best working qualities of all metals.  It’s highly yielding and pliable, which enables it to be pounded into other shapes, stretched into a wire, hammered into thin sheets and cut into slices. In addition, gold can be re-melted and reused over and over again.  

The Ideal Electrical Conductor

Gold is an excellent electrical conductor.  Since electricity is essentially the flow of charged particles in a current, a conductive metal like gold allows this current to flow freely. According to the GRMS, gold is able to carry even a tiny electrical current in temperatures ranging from -55° to +200° centigrade.

Gold’s strong resistance to corrosion allows it to provide an atomically clean metal surface that has an electrical contact resistance close to zero. At the same time, its high thermal conductivity ensures rapid dissipation of heat when used for contacts. This makes gold a vital component for electrical connectors in computers and telecommunications equipment.

AST has been in the surface finishing business for more than three decades and offers a variety of gold plating services.  For more information about AST’s gold finishing capabilities, visit www.astfinishing.com.