The perfect surface in rose gold?

Our claim is the perfect surface.

Not always everything works as it should. Troubleshooting with FIB-SEM analysis is therefore an important part of our services. If our customers’ products do not show satisfactory results with regard to the coating, a solution is needed quickly. For this purpose, we carefully analyze our customers’ workpieces to get to the bottom of the matter.

Recently, we received a very beautiful cap of a writing instrument in rose gold, but unfortunately the surface was completely tarnished. The optical inspection was quickly done. The defects are often visible to the naked eye, but not the cause. In this specific case, our colleagues from the technical department chose the FIB-SEM electron microscope as the best possible analysis instrument because it delivers very precise results in the search for defects. The FIB-SEM allows the micrograph to be taken exactly at the defect location, which can then be analyzed with EDX and mass spectrometer.

After analysis, it was apparent that this workpiece consisted of not one, but many layers of gold, which had different alloys. The different layers, each with a different alloy, indicate that there were repeated power interruptions.

The images of our FIB-SEM analysis clearly show the cause of the defect.