Palladium is often use in producing white gold jewelry. But palladium does have one significant limiting factor: cost. The
recent rise in the price of palladium has made palladium white gold alloys quite expensive. As a result, the alloy you use often depends on the karat range you’re working in and the type of jewelry you’re producing.
For example, most manufacturers of 10k jewelry would be delighted to find a 10k white gold that does not require rhodium plating, does not tarnish, can be either investment cast or mechanically worked using standard techniques, and is appropriate for all product types.
Although they can get those properties from a 10k palladium white gold that contains about 20 percent palladium, they aren’t willing to pay the hefty price tag.
But for those who find the price prohibitive, there are other elements that will bleach gold to varying lesser degrees, but most have undesirable properties. Poor corrosion and tarnish resistance, high degrees of segregation, embrittlement, and poor mechanical deformation properties are often experienced with these palladium alternatives.
Recently, though, alloy designers have introduced palladium alternatives that have improved dramatically over their predecessors.
There are several alloys that replace some or all of the palladium with other elements, such as manganese. (These were used in Europe a number of years ago but were either modified or withdrawn due to processing difficulties.) A nickel- and palladium-free alloy that contains manganese is available in the United States. This is a relatively new product.
