How Are Silver-plated Goods Manufactured?

The object that manufacturers use to make silver plated goods is called Sheffield plate. It is a combination of layers of silver and copper. With copper at the bottom and silver on top; to make it look like it is silver. Silver melts when it is exposed to very high temperatures. Sheffield is made by placing a very thin sheet of silver on another, relatively thick, sheet of copper. Some weight is put on them and the two sheets are heated in order to fuse them together. Most of the time, after heating, the material is hammered with to make it thinner. At this time, the two layers have fused together and the thickness reduces at a similar rate. Silver-plated or Sheffield are much less in cost and look just like silver only because the thinnest layer on top is real silver and the rest is copper.