Stainless Steel

Silver

Gold plating the surface

Gold plating the surface

The 24K Brush Gold was plated directly onto the stainless steel rod.  We plated this rod end for about 30 seconds using the Universal Plater set at 4 volts.  Because the stainless steel  was freshly polished and clean activation was not necessary.  If necessary stainless steel can be activated using Wood's Nickel Strike or some other hydrochloric acid based pretreatment.

Immediately after nickel plating we rinsed the surface and applied the 24K gold.  Activation of freshly plated nickel is not normally required.  We plated the end of this strip for about 30 seconds using the Universal Plater set to 4 volts, this applied approximately 20 micro-inches of hardened 24K gold plate.