Silnova: the Silver Alloy

When the conversation turns to silver, which is resistant to tarnishing, oxidisation and blackening, one inevitably comes up against an issue which was already the subject of much debate during the 90’s. In fact, numerous alloys and products promising the preservation of the metal’s natural colour without resorting to the use of aesthetic-changing galvanic or protective treatments were developed. ‘Here at Legor Group, we also explored the issue’ explains Massimo Poliero, CEO of Legor Group S.p.A. ‘and we worked on it at length, until we came to a conclusion: modifying something that already existed wasn’t enough. We needed to think ‘out of the box’ and create something completely new. This led us to implement a 3-year R&D project, during which 186 formulas underwent thousands of tests in the lab and some of them produced some very interesting results. But this time we decided to go further than the lab experience and subject the highest-performing formulas to real-life tests involving branches of the Legor Group in Bangkok, Mumbai and New York. We chose completely different testers with totally different conditions in terms of humidity and temperature. The aim was to gather photographic documentation which was comparable.’ This original systematic documentation process, never used before within this sector, meant that we could record extremely useful scientific results and obtain indisputable answers.

‘The results are amazing: the Silnova alloy is definitely the most resistant to tarnishing ever tested. With a tarnish resistance 20 times higher than that of traditional Sterling Silver. There is another fundamental feature that distinguishes Silnova from any other alloy born with the same promise: its frame of reference is not limited to silver alloys, in fact our product raises the bar of the no-tarnish performance to include gold alloys.’ Which is the main ingredient which enabled you to obtain these results? ‘One of our secrets – explains Poliero – is that we introduced palladium as an ennobling element, distributed in perfect balance with the other elements and in a composition that’s copper-free. But that’s not all... after three years of R&D we are delighted to announce the launch of Silnova to the world, the patent-pending silver alloy which reveals the bright, natural colour of silver to consumers. It avoids the need for plating and frees silversmiths as well as the entire planet from the use of potassium cyanide (utilised for silver plating), otherwise necessary for making the product last.’ The official launch of the product will take place at VICENZAORO T-Gold 2017.

For more information: www.silnova.it