nSILVER® Anti-tarnish Coating

Applications

About Beneq nSILVER anti-tarnish application

Comment about Beneq nSILVER application by Terja Pelkonen, Kalevala Jewelry.

nSILVER® Anti-tarnish Coating

Beneq ALD anti-tarnish coating for silver jewelry and coins

Does your jewelry tarnish before it reaches the retailer?
We have the solution.

Tarnishing is a well-known phenomenon in the silver industry. Tarnishing is mainly caused by airborne sulfur, which reacts with the surface of silver and produces black silver sulfide (Ag₂S). nSILVER^®, a unique coating process developed and patented by Beneq, is a fundamental solution for the protection of silver against tarnishing. For nSILVER, Beneq now provides turnkey solutions for industrial scale production, e.g., the TFS 500 Thin Film System for ALD coating.

The invisible nSILVER anti-tarnish property is based on coating silver with a fully transparent, conformal two-component thin film. The dual layer structure of nSILVER consists of two ceramic materials: aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) and titanium dioxide (TiO₂). While the bottom layer acts as a bonding layer with good adherence to the silver, the top layer acts as a barrier layer through which liquids and other aggressive chemicals cannot penetrate.

Proven performance

nSILVER has been subjected to numerous industrially acknowledged anti-tarnish tests, and the results have been overwhelmingly impressive. nSILVER has proven its superior performance in the following tests:

Salt spray test (DIN 50021 SS)
Kesternich test (DIN 50018 KFW 0,2S)
Sweat, seawater and perfume resistance tests
Dilution resistance (alcohols and ketones)
Climate test (DIN 58390-12-120, sharpness grade 7)
UV exposure test (Sol 2)
Commercial washing machine test
Chemical dry-cleaning test

Enhanced brightness

The dual nSILVER coating is optimized to be completely transparent on silver. However, the coating factually enhances the reflectivity of the surface, which gives an nSILVER coated article a brighter and more glossy appearance than silver itself.