Epner Technology, Brooklyn, N.Y., was chosen to use its Laser Gold technology to electroplate gold onto the cast bronze Oscar statuettes this year. Laser Gold is a pure 24 kt gold that is also three times harder than ordinary pure gold. The first step in the process was to polish the raw bronze. Each Oscar was then racked, electro-cleaned, copper plated, bright nickel plated, and immediately immersed in the Laser Gold plating tank. The entire cycle took more than six hours each.
“This is the first time that this unique plating process has been specified for the Oscars,” said David Epner, President. The company has had a long relationship as a gold plating supplier to Polich Tallix, the art foundry that produced this year’s Oscars.
Epner Technology, founded in 1910, originally developed Laser Gold for Xerox, and later modified the process for NASA Spacecraft. From the earliest weather satellites to the cryogenic cooling systems on the James Webb Space Telescope cameras, spacecraft have utilized Laser Gold’s ultra-high infrared reflectivity. This property is critical to maintaining thermal control of instruments by reflecting the sun’s radiant energy back into space. This year’s Oscars will share the same ultra-rich gold, and will benefit from the durability of Epner Technology’s unique formula.
