A shiny tap, gold-plated jewellery, a chrome motorcycle part, and a corrosion-resistant screw can all share the same basic trick: a thin layer of one metal is placed over another. That trick is called electroplating. Electroplating may sound like a factory-only process, but the idea behind it is simple. It uses electricity to move metal ions through a liquid and deposit them onto a surface. Once you understand the parts involved, the process becomes much easier to picture. El