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GOLD
LEAF MANUFACTURING PROCESS
Gold Leaf (also known as Gold Foil) imitation,
unlike the authentic gold leaf that is made from real
gold, imitation gold leaf is made from brass or copper
and tin alloys, but the process is very similar on both
metal leafs, as well as for silver leaf (silver
foil).
The following is an overview of the process involved in
the manufacturing of gold leaf.
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1) Melting
into bars |
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Proportioned gold (or the indicated
metal depending what kind of metal leaf is being
elaborated) is put into the crucible and molten
into gold liquid under high temperature, with micro-silver
and copper elements evenly poured in. Then, with
dregs filtered out, gold liquid is poured into the
measured iron groove for cooling, resulting gold
bars. |
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2) Bar pressing |
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The thick gold bars are then pressed
by machine to become thin golden belts which are
cut into gold leaves as thin paper. |
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3) Belt cutting |
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The gold belt is cut by machine
into squares of 90 x 95 mm. Since the weight of
these squares should be basically the same, their
length has to be constantly adjusted according to
the difference of the thickness of the water-box
belt. Each wad with 144 pieces is taken as a unit
for adjustment. |
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4) Softening
the gold pieces |
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Each wad of gold pieces cut off
from the gold belt will become soft after having
been heated and annealed by the heat-treatment furnace.
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5) Hand hammering |
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The softened 90 x 95 mm gold pieces
in square are hammered by a 1.8 kg hammer at three
intervals by the worker, each requiring no less
than 980 times for expansion (each interval requires
heating for softening in order to be expanded) into
gold leaves of 120 x 120 mm in square and 0.025-0.028
mm in thickness. |
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6) Manual
cutting of leaves |
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Gold leaves are cut into small pieces
of 30 x 30 mm, commonly called “spills”.
Each gold leaf of 120 x 120 mm is cut into 16 tiny
spills. |
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7) Incubating |
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A piece of black gold paper of 10
cm in square is put into the incubator for heating,
in order to expand gold quickly after spills are
installed as the next procedure. |
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8) Layering
with black paper |
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Tiny spills are put into the black
gold paper of 100 x 100 mm, commonly called “Kaizi”.
A spill is put between each piece of black gold
paper, until 2304 layers are filled with spills.
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9) Electric
furnace |
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“Kaizi” with spills
will be put into the electric furnace to be processed
by constant temperature, in order to ensure the
“kaizi” will not be affected by the
temperature and moisture in natural space. |
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10) Machine
hammering |
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Tiny spills of 30 x 30 mm will be
hammered by machine about 3000 times, so as to be
expanded to be 50 x 50 mm. Then big spills of 50
x 50 mm will be further hammered by machine about
2000 times to be expanded into 100 x 100 mm. |
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11) Second
layering |
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Kaizi will be put into the black
paper of 195 x 195 mm. Each kaizi is placed between
each piece of black gold paper, until 2304 layers
are filled with it and packed in a craft paper bag.
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12) More
hammering |
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The paper bag, hammered by machine
for 3-4 minutes each time, will be unwrapped to
release the heat generated in the hammering process.
Then, the paper bag will be wrapped again to be
hammered by machine for nearly 2 hours (about 21000
times). After this, gold leaves of 100 x 100 mm
will be expanded into foils of 200 x 200 mm with
workmanship. The requirement of even thickness and
softness should be met (to be able to be twisted
into powder). If the requirement cannot be met,
hammering should not stop until qualified level
is reached. The extra part going beyond the size
of the black gold paper should be scrapped away
as rejects. |
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13) Papering |
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With goose feather, the worker gingerly
takes out the gold foils with workmanship from the
black gold paper piece by piece. Then, they will
be arranged into piles of gold foils and put into
paper in the shape of square foils (a piece of paper
is put between each foil). Each set will consist
of 100 pieces and the cut off pieces will be used
as fringe foils. |
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14) Inspection |
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Through inspection of the finished
product warehouse, unqualified products will be
rejected for further improvement. Qualified products
will be bond into 10 sets (1000 pieces) and wrapped
into a small bag with desiccating agents inside.
Then, the bag will be wrapped and sealed with plastic
for preservation. |
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