Palladium:
An alternative to white gold?

Philip Roberts of Niagara Falls Castings and Tony Baird of Baird & Co have been working together to produce high quality castings using the palladium TRU-White Palladium alloy developed by Baird & Co Ltd.

‘We are delighted to be able to announce the introduction of a service to produce castings in 950 Palladium. If you are unfamiliar with Palladium we hope that the information we are providing will help you to make the most of a very exciting opportunity for (UK) jewellery manufacturers,' says Philip Roberts managing director of NFC.

Background

Palladium was discovered in 1803 and is a member of the platinum group of metals (PGM's) which includes Platinum, Palladium, Ruthenium, Rhodium and Iridium. It has long been used for jewellery manufacture and was very popular in the first half of the 20th century. More recently Palladium has been used as a whitening agent in white gold alloys particularly since the introduction of the European Nickel Directive. Over the last few years Palladium jewellery has seen a resurgence particularly in the USA.

Advantages

Like Platinum, the standard alloy for Palladium jewellery is 950 and so can be marketed as ‘95% pure'. Palladium is very white, it easily falls into the ‘Grade 1' category of the index developed to measure the whiteness of white gold alloys. Because of this is does not need Rhodium plating. The metal has the same tarnish resistance as Platinum, it is malleable and durable and can be polished to a high finish.

Two of the great advantages of Palladium are it's density and price. A ring cast in Palladium will weigh roughly 53% as much as the same piece cast in Platinum. At the time of writing, the price of Palladium was approximately 25% the price of Platinum.

Palladium Alloy

All our Palladium castings are manufactured using TRU-White Palladium alloy developed by Baird & Co Ltd
(www.goldline.co.uk). This is the same alloy that is used in their very successful ‘Bianco' range of plain wedding bands.

Hallmarking

At the moment there is no legal hallmark for 950 Palladium in the UK but the Assay Offices of Great Britain are working on the development of an accepted mark.

If you would like any further information please do not hesitate to contact us.

Niagara Falls Castings (UK) Ltd

Budbrooke Road,

Warwick

CV34 5XH

Tel: 01926 496258

sales@nf-castings.co.uk

www.nf-castings.co.uk