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Coating a metal or other material, such as plastic or china,
with a hard, nonporous metallic surface to improve durability
and beauty. Early plated goods (old Sheffield plate) are made by
the process invented by Thomas Boulsover, and consist of a
sandwich of copper between two layers of silver. Today surfaces
such as gold, silver, stainless steel, palladium, copper, and
nickel are applied by dipping an object into a solution
containing the desired surface material, which is deposited by
chemical or electrochemical action (seeelectroplating). Much
plating is done for decorative purposes, but still more is done
to increase the durability and corrosion resistance of softer
materials. Most automotive parts, appliances, housewares and
flatware, hardware, plumbing and electronic equipment, wire
goods, aircraft and aerospace products, and machine tools are
plated for durability. See alsogalvanizing, terneplate,
tinplating. This entry comes from Encyclop