COATING OF PLUMBING HARDWARE AND METAL OR PLASTIC INTERIOR DECORATIONS WITH BRONZE, BRASS, GOLD AND COPPER
It often happens that while the size, shape and functions of an interior design feature suit us perfectly, the color just isn’t right. The Brass Workshop has a solution that is both easy and affordable. We will apply ion plasma spray-coating, anodizing, electroplating, metallization, or painting to fashion any colors you want in the “wet” areas of your home. All these methods are tried and true, but each has its own set of strengths.
One of the benefits of metal coating in the colors of bronze, brass, gold (polished brass), or copper is that it offers very substantial savings as opposed to the use of real bronze, brass, or copper. The Brass Workshop will offer a solution suited to the customer’s budget, but without this detracting from the quality of the job we do.
Bronze plating in interior decorations changes the color of a surface, made from a different metal or another material, to the color of bronze. The Brass Workshop applies bronze plating on stainless steel, aluminum, and some plastics. There are several bronze plating techniques for stainless steel that will yield different shades of color. The bronze coat hue will also depend on whether the original substrate is ground or polished.
Brass plating changes the color of a substrate, made from a different metal or another material, to the color of brass. The Brass Workshop applies brass coating on stainless steel, aluminum, and ferrous metals. The brass coat color will vary depending on the coating method used and the metal substrate it is applied to.
Gilding (the color of polished brass) is a process that has decorative items fully or partially coated to resemble gold (the color of polished brass).
Copper plating is the process of laying a thin coat of copper on a metal substrate to lend it a copper coloration.
The Brass Workshop lets its customers select the color shades they want from a color sampler.
Coating with bronze, brass, gold, or copper is a great way to alter the color of an already existing item or element of décor in interior decorations anywhere in your home environment. Here is a partial list of items suggested for metal coating:
- Sink consoles,
- Towel dryers,
- Faucets,
- Bathtub handles or legs;
- Hangers, holders, and hooks;
- Bowl keys or buttons;
- Doors, hinges, ledges, plinths;
- Sockets, switches, cover plates, and other accessories.
But let us explain some more about the different techniques we employ for coating items with bronze, brass, gold, and copper. The most reliable method is ion plasma spray-coating with stainless steel.
Ion plasma spraying is a form of cathode spray-coating on a solid substrate. The substrate gets “bombarded” with feedstock plasma ions by means of gaseous discharge.
The commonly noted benefits of ion plasma spray-coating are:
- Superior adhesion and homogeneity of deposition.
- The stoichiometric composition of the substrate is not changed.
- Hard-melting and infusible materials can be used as coating.
- Deposition parameters are controlled during the coating process.
- Target composition is controlled throughout the process.
- The substrate can be cleaned of the accruals of deposit.
The plasma form of the feedstock is achieved through the action of a cathode spot. Its size is measured in micrometers, but the temperature it generates is such that it turns any material to highly ionized gas.
The coating is administered in two steps inside a vacuum. First a coat of titanium is applied, which will serve as the medium between the substrate and the main layer of titanium nitride. The two coats are no more than 40µm thick.
Benefits of ion plasma spray-coating with titanium nitride:
- The vacuum environment assures the purity of deposit composition, as well as the stable and lasting color and adhesion.
- The use of extra high temperature in spray-coating guarantees the ultimate adhesion between the titanium coat and substrate.
The titanium atoms are deposited inside a special vacuum chamber.
The colors that can be achieved through ion plasma spraying are: bronze, brass, gold (polished brass), copper, blue, green, pink gold, and champagne.
Electroplating is a process that creates a metal coating on a metal substrate through the application of a thin metal film with the aid of electrolyte. Molecules of the coating metal, transmitted by a conductive solution, penetrate the substrate to be coated. The result is that one metal invades the surface of the other.
The electroplating process lends extra hardness, corrosion-resistance and longevity to the metal part coated. The electroplated metal part also has a higher decorative appeal. The electroplating process cannot be performed without an electrolyte bath. A conductive solution is poured, and two anodes are placed into the bath. There exist industrial metal electroplating lines. Each line needs its own shop, fitted with a powerful ventilation system as the process involves the use of chemical reagents.
Anodizing of aluminum is an electrochemical deposition process that gives metal parts an anodic oxide finish to protect them from environmental impact. Hence the other, more fitting name of the process: anodic oxidizing. There exist numerous methods of anodizing, some of them resulting in a colored finish. The process is mainly practiced for decorative purposes.
As follows from the term itself, metallization is about giving various surfaces a thin metal finish. Not only metals, but also plastics, wood, glass, and many other materials can be metalized. The purpose of chemical metallization is to enhance the decorative value of the target object. The coat obtained through chemical metallization also conceals defects such as tiny pores and micro-scratches on the surface to be coated. In some cases the process may be employed in order to restore a surface.
If we collate all the intended purposes of this processing method, they are all about enhancing the characteristics of the material from which the target part is made. Such characteristics, inter alia, include:
- decorative value;
- resistance to corrosion;
- hardness;
- wear resistance, and others.
When a metal coat is applied chemically to the substrate, the resultant finish can be customized to fit the required specifications.
The Brass Workshop is eminently equipped to carry out any scope of coating operations with bronze, brass, gold, or copper on plumbing hardware and metal or plastic elements of décor.
