Characteristics of 14K white gold by age-hardening treatment

Because of beautiful glossy and color, the value of gold leverage is very high in Europe. For improve the quality of white gold, we performed heat treatment on 14K white gold alloys at various age-hardening conditions. Age-hardening behavior and the related phase transformation changes were studied to elucidate the hardening mechanism of 14K white gold alloys. For solid solution treatment [ST], casted 14K white gold alloy specimens were treated at high temperature ($750^{\circ}C$) during 30 minute, and the specimens dropped to water for quenching immediately. For Age-hardening treatment [AT], the specimens were treated at various temperatures ($250^{\circ}C{\sim}300^{\circ}C$). After the heat treatment, we observed increased hardness from 144 Hv to 214 Hv by Vicker's hardness tester. Variation of the grain size measured by optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. By electron probe micro-analysis (EPMA) mapping analysis, we investigated that irregular particles were changed uniformly. After heat treatment, 14K white gold alloys showed improved hardness and became uniformity of grain size by age-hardening treatment.