What is a silver alloy?Ī silver alloy is a metal that contains silver and one or more additional metals. You can find further learning on why to choose sterling silver for jewelry here. People use sterling silver to make jewelry, cutlery, and musical instruments. Pure silver is usually too soft to make anything functional or durable, and therefore alloying the silver with another metal allows it to have the strength of another metal, with the flexibility and lustrous appearance of silver. Sterling silver is an alloy consisting of 92.5% silver and 7.5% of another metal, usually copper. Sterling Silver What alloy is in sterling silver? More reasons why Stainless Steel is the best… Unlike many other metals, these are safe to wear and no harm will come if you wear stainless steel jewelry for life.
Our stainless steel jewelry will not rust, tarnish, or turn your skin green, even if worn daily. Stainless steel is durable and resists corrosion and oxidation. This process, called passivation, is the spontaneous formation of a hard non-reactive surface film that prohibits further corrosion. It also protects against scratching by taking the initial impact of a scratch and then resealing itself.
The invisible coating protects the steel underneath from oxidation (tarnishing and rusting).
This durability is due to a Chromium coating that is chemically bonded to the steel. Though people do not consider it as a precious metal, it is much more durable than silver or platinum. It is a corrosion-resistant alloy which ideal for long-lasting jewelry designs. It is also used in food and beverage processing and chemical processing applications. It is often used in marine applications where the steel is constantly exposed to moisture. No matter the force or frequency of use, it rarely reveals traces of dents or scratches, even after years of employment. The Zn-55% Al (hot-dip galvanized) and Zn-12.5% Ni (electrodeposited) coated steels were found to give significantly better corrosion performance than pure zinc or the other alloy coatings investigated.316L stainless steel is very resistant to rust, oxidation, and discoloration. ‘Salt’ formulated solution and ‘salt’ impregnated timber resulted in more corrosive environments than their ‘oxide’ formulated equivalents. The experimental cells demonstrated that the humidity of the environment was important, significant corrosion of coatings occurring when the moisture content exceeded 18–20%. The corrosion behaviour was evaluated by determining corrosion potential and corrosion current, and examination using scanning electron microscopy. To more closely simulate service conditions, an experimental cell was developed in which coated steels were in contact with CCA treated timber. For rapid evaluation of corrosion performance, the corrosion tests were carried out on specimens immersed in copper/chromium (simulated CCA) ‘salt’ and ‘oxide’ formulated solutions. The corrosion behaviour of a wide range of zinc and zinc alloy coated steels, in wood preservative solutions and timber environments, has been investigated using electrochemical measurements.