what is ion plated stainless steel

what is ion plated stainless steel, ion plated stainless steel, ion plated vs stainless steel, gold ip stainless steel

ION PLATING

“Ion plating (IP) is a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process that is sometimes called ion-assisted deposition (IAD) or ion vapor deposition (IVD) and is a version of vacuum deposition. Ion plating uses concurrent or periodic bombardment of the substrate, and deposits film by atomic-sized energetic particles. Bombardment prior to deposition is used to sputter clean the substrate surface. During deposition, the bombardment is used to modify and control the properties of the depositing film.” Source Wikipedia.

So, in English… this basically means that gas metal ions are zapped onto the jewelry to create an extremely tight chemical bond. Different types of metal gases are used to create the desired color of plating.

GOLD-PLATED JEWELRY

Gold-plated jewelry is jewelry that’s plated/ covered with a gold layer. Gold plating is the addition of a gold layer on jewelry. There are different plating techniques – heavy gold plating (2.5 microns of the gold layer), gold electroplating (.5 microns), and gold flashing/ gold washing (less than .175microns). Though the plating thickness varies, the techniques are all referred to as electroplating. Think of the process as dipping a stainless steel piece of jewelry into a gold solution.

Gold plating is commonly used for costume jewelry or to mimic more expensive pieces. It is almost impossible to tell apart expensive pieces of gold jewelry from inexpensive gold-plated imitations.

IS GOLD PLATED REAL GOLD?

Yes, gold plating is real gold but because of how little gold is used, such jewelry doesn’t hold the value of gold.

The purity of the gold used in gold plating ranges just like solid gold. The lowest purity is usually 10K and the highest is 24K gold. When it comes to gold plating, the main difference in these types of gold is the color it produces rather than in the value. The higher the purity of the gold, the more gold-like the color is. However, the value doesn’t change much because of how little gold is used, regardless of the purity levels.