Some of the earliest patents for gold plating on plastics were owned by Epner Technology. They were for gold plating plastic military buttons and insignia, thus saving millions of pounds of brass desperately needed for World War II shell casings. Today, Epner specializes in plating a variety of di-electric materials including the engineering plastics such as Ultem™, Teflon™, Ryton™ and Torlon™…and of course ABS.
With the rising growth industry of plating gold and silver on non-metallic substrates, solutions for plating onto these substrates is highly sought after.
Design requirements and tolerances have become more strict for production parts using non-metallic substrates. Lightweight non-metallic parts have caught a lot of attention as research and development pushes the envelope for low mass and high strength components. With those parts, gold plating can ease a lot of project development requirements by providing a strong lightweight part with the properties of gold on the surface. The booming industry of these parts has allowed us to gain experience on gold plating newly developed materials to satisfy our customer’s requirements. This includes non-metallic substrates and plastics, various grades of Carbon Fiber, 3D printed and Injection Molded Plastics, Bone, Plaster, Resin, Epoxy, Bondo, or just about anything besides Zinc.
Tech Data
Design Considerations