Platinum Sterling is a

registered trademark The registered trademark symbol, , is a typographic symbol that provides notice that the preceding word or symbol is a trademark or service mark that has been registered with a national trademark office. A trademark is a symbol, word, or wo ...

name of ABI Precious Metals, Inc. The trademark covers a range of

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductilit ...

s whose primary constituents are

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...

and

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

, primarily used in jewellery. The range of Platinum Sterling alloys was developed in 2003 by Marc Robinson, and its solder was created by Chuck Bennett.

Properties

The platinum is used to replace at least some of the copper present in a typical

sterling silver Sterling silver is an alloy of silver containing 92.5% by weight of silver and 7.5% by weight of other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925. ''Fine silver'', which is 99.9% pure silver, is ...

alloy, which provides a greater light reflectivity (by refining the grain structure) and resistance to tarnish (thought to be caused by oxidation of copper) than standard sterling silver. Platinum Sterling is a cheaper alternative to white gold. It is also allegedly hard wearing and very white and so does not require rhodium plating like white gold.

Composition

The composition of Platinum Sterling is published; three alloys are commercially available, all containing standard 92.5%

and 1%, 3.5% or 5% platinum. A small amount of

gallium Gallium is a chemical element with the symbol Ga and atomic number 31. Discovered by French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1875, Gallium is in group 13 of the periodic table and is similar to the other metals of the group ( alum ...

can also be added to the alloy to ease manufacturing. The patent application for Platinum Sterling claims: The claim also states:

References

{{Jewellery Silver Platinum Precious metal alloys Jewellery components

Properties

Composition

See also

References