Several aspects can be fulfilled by gold plating. On the one hand, the corrosion-resistant properties of gold can be transferred to other materials, and on the other hand, the optical attractiveness of gold is also used. In gold plating, objects are covered with a thin layer of gold. To produce the respective object completely from gold would be too expensive due to the rarity of gold, which is why coating it with a fine layer of gold makes sense. Gold plating can be applied to a wide variety of materials; metals such as zinc, stainless steel, brass, bronze, silver or copper are particularly suitable. But also textiles, paper, wood, plastic or ceramics can be refined with this process. Pure gold can be used for gilding, but gold alloys, e.g. 8 or 14 carat gold, are more common. These alloys with silver, copper, cadmium and zinc give the gold more hardness, make it more resistant and also ensure a wide range of colours for the precious metal coating. Gold plating in red gold, yellow gold and white gold is possible, even shades of blue and green of the precious metal are conceivable. The gold plating can be done mechanically with flattened gold sheet or chemically using galvanic technology.
