The profession of a jeweler presupposes not only creative flight of thoughts, but also a high level of skill and perseverance in everyday work. The priority is to ensure the highest detailing of products, as well as the ability to translate your own thoughts and materials, while maintaining impeccable quality.
The technology of three-dimensional modeling and three-dimensional printing allows, in the shortest possible time, to create products of increased complexity, including small and highly detailed elements of the product. With the advent of 3D modeling, all businesses and manufacturers have begun to show a genuine interest in this technology. During this short time, these technologies have been able to positively recommend themselves in a wide variety of industries and spheres of production, among which the priority is the jewelry industry.
Today, jewelry prototyping is based on several basic technologies to obtain models:
- High precision investment casting.
- High-precision die-casting based on burned-out patterns.
Investment casting uses multi-jet modeling (MJP) technology or the processing of wax materials on a numerically controlled milling machine (CNC), where wax models are produced on high-precision equipment for subsequent production of master models.
When casting on burned-out models, products are made from liquid photopolymers by laser or projector stereolithography. It is also common to use such photopolymer models as a master model for hot or cold baking, due to the thermal stability of some polymers.
In specialized software, taking into account the technological features, the future model of the jewelry is manufactured and drawn. Typically, software such as Rhinoceros, Gemvision Matrix or Artcam is used to make jewelry. Further, Materialize Magics checks for errors in the model itself, as well as corrects the polygonal mesh and prepares it for further sending for 3D printing.
The advantages of 3D jewelry modeling.
Speed. The highest priority advantage is the speed of obtaining the finished master model due to the available print speed of SLA or DLP printers and the speed of modern CNC machines. For artists, this process allows them to create unique product models with complex geometries, thereby opening up endless possibilities for creativity and experimentation.
Losses. Applying the technology of three-dimensional modeling, an undeniable advantage and a unique opportunity is the possibility of preliminary accurate calculation of the weight of the future product and, accordingly, the possibility of adjusting it to the required values.
Replication. The 3D printer platform accommodates a large number of models, which allows the production of many prototypes in one print cycle.
At the moment, three-dimensional modeling and 3D printing are used by both large enterprises and individual entrepreneurs working directly with one-off products. The disadvantage of the industry as a whole is the high cost of equipment and consumables.
Available Equipment
EnvisionTEC Perfactory III
Layer thickness
15-15 µm.
Print area
90 x 56 x 180 mm.
Price
from 10$ per 1 cm³
Strizh 2M
Linear axis resolution
0,001 mm.
Processing area
200 x 80 x 140 mm.
Price
from 6$ per hour
Materials
RCP30
SLA/DLP
EPIC
SLA/DLP
EC500
SLA/DLP
PIC100
SLA/DLP
Grey Resin Pro
SLA
Ferris File-A-Wax
CNC