What is Silver Plating?

As a precious metal, Silver has many desirable attriibutes such as high levels of Wear and Corrosion resistance, electrical and thermal conductivity as well as being notable for it's visual appearance. It is however, a rare and expensive metal and so Electro-plating has long been used to give components that beneifictial attributes of Silver at a lower cost point. Silchrome offer Silver Plating most often for industrial, electrical and engineering applications and all of the Silver used in the process is 100% pure with no alloys ever used. 

What is the Process?

Silver Plating is an electro-plating technique in which parts are placed into a vat containing an electrolytic solution and a current is run into the bath promoting the build-up of the Silver onto the component. In order to obtain the best possible results, parts will first be subject to a number of pre-treatments depending on their material which are all carried out in house.

What are the Advantages?

Pure Silver has the highest electrical conductivity of all metals. This ability to carry a current means it’s extremely popular in the electronics and microwave industries. Its high conductivity allows Silver to carry high frequencies with minimal loss and reduces passive intermodulation. Silver also has the best heat conductivity properties of any metal. This enables it not only to heat up quickly but to cool quickly as well.

As Silver is a noble metal, it has a high level of corrosion resistance. Silver plating will withstand damage from oxidation, the weather, water, acids and alkais, but does react sulphur. Silver has a high level of lubrication which allows it to act as a wear resistant coating on parts like bearings.

Specifications Offered:

BS 2816: 1989, QQ-S-365D: 1985, ISO4521:1985, DEF STAN 03-9:2007

What Silchrome Offer:

Low Volume – Silchrome have a dedicated manual line in which parts are individually jigged.

Medium Volume – Silchrome have a semi-automated line that can handle multi-jigged parts on an electronically controlled gantry.

High Volume – Silchrome have a barrel line which is able to process large batches of small parts.

Gasket Line - Silchrome’s plating is activated through Nickel Strike and we only use 100% Pure Silver in all of our plating. This creates a very smooth finish with an almost white appearance. Find out more by reading HERE.

All of our processes are carried in house at our production facility in Leeds and Silchrome Plating are IS0 9001 AND ISO 14001 approved. You can find out more about our plating process HERE.