The popular gold-plated deposits gold ions onto the base metal (e.g. silver or copper) to form a thick gold layer. Conventional XRF spectrometers may misjudge such jewelry as the K gold.

To deal with this issue, CFAN Instrument launched the PURERAY family: Gold^Lite, Gold, Gold^MC, GoldSDD, GoldSDD^MC and Pro. With the Smart FP algorithm and the creative vertical optical path, these spectrometers can identify the plating to tell the gold-plated and the K gold apart. They can help clients recognize the true value of gold jewelry during recycling. 

Take the PURERAY Gold to test a gold-plated pendant and a K-gold ring.

(1) Pendant analysis

Apply the AuAgX curve to test the pendant as shown below. The result is shown below :

It shows that the pendant contains 55% pure gold. If users do not notice the “Warning: Maybe it's gold-plated!”, they may suffer financial losses. 

Build a new curve with the sliver base and gold layer to test the sample. The thickness of the layer is 4.47um, as shown below:

(2) Ring analysis

Apply the alloy curve to test the ring, the result shows that the ring contains 75.08% pure gold. The K gold sample does not trigger the coating warning, shown as below. 

Only gold-plated samples will trigger the coating warning.

Conclusion:

With the Smart FP algorithm and the creative vertical optical path, PURERAY Gold can distinguish between the gold-plated silver and the K gold. Therefore, it is able to give an alert message: “Warning: Maybe it's gold-plated!”.

Some brands claim that their spectrometers are also equipped with the FP algorithm, but what is the FP algorithm? The biggest difference between the FP algorithm and Empirical Coefficient method lies in whether there is mathematical modelling. Empirical Coefficient method relies on the linear regression equation of standard samples while ignores the parameters of instruments. Modelling takes into account the sample composition and structure, X-ray, detector, mutual excitation between elements and layers to calculated simulated spectrum. 

With the FP algorithm, spectrometers can distinguish between the gold-plated silver and the K gold. Therefore, it will compare the collected spectrum with the calculated spectrum to distinguish the gold-plated from the K gold, since there are differences between the second characteristic X-rays of elements in the two kinds of jewelry. By virtue of the creative vertical optical path, these devices can distinguish between the gold-plated silver and the K gold. Therefore, it are better at identifying such differences. Thus, PURERAY family can find out whether the gold-plated silver/copper is the K gold or the gold-plated.

The detector is the heart of the XRF spectrometer and the algorithm is the soul. Good-looking bodies are all the same but a beautiful soul is a rare find.

CFAN's PURERAY family is of great help to identify the gold-plated silver.