JEWELLERY 3D PRINTING : A COMPLETE GUIDE

JEWELLERY 3D PRINTING: A COMPLETE GUIDE makenica.com/jewellery-3d-printing-a-complete-guide September 20, 2020

3D printing, also called additive manufacturing, has revolutionized manufacturing systems in several industries. The jewellery industry is one of them. 3D printing creates highly precise and detailed parts which is one of the most important aspects of quality jewellery.

3D printing jewellery, however, does not mean directly manufacturing end-use pieces.

Jewellers do not simply 3D print gold rings. They 3D print highly detailed wax models of the desired pieces and use them to make moulds.

HOW DOES IT WORK? To 3D print jewellery, you would need to make models of the desired pieces first.

Imagine that you are a jeweller and you've received an order for 50 custom-made, highly detailed golden necklaces. To apply 3D printing in the process, you will first create a model of the custom necklaces in CAD and export the model to your 3D printer.

Next, you will 3D print the 50 models of the necklace and then glue some of the necklaces (50 if possible, at once) together on a plastic or wax stand. You will put them in a bin where the material for the mould will be poured.

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After the mould hardens, you need to put it in an oven to melt the necklaces and the stands. This will leave a space on the inside for the required material, gold, in this case, to be poured into.

This process may sound complicated and long but if you compare it to the traditional method of making jewellery, it's way faster.

WHAT MACHINES ARE USED? 3D printing jewellery clearly requires highly precise and reliable printers. Therefore, Stereolithography (SLA) printers are the machine of choice over the FDM or SLS printers when it comes to using additive manufacturing for producing jewellery. The 3D printers should be compatible with wax or wax-like resin material.

Here are some popular 3D printers used to make jewellery.

Peopoly Moai Peopoly Moai is the cheapest 3D printer for producing jewellery. But cheapest does not necessarily mean low quality. Moai is a very cost-friendly 3D printer that gives a high print quality with the appropriate resins and printing practices.

The Peopoly Moai is an SLA 3D printer with a build volume of 130 x 130 x 180 mm and a 70-micron laser spot. With this, you can produce layers at heights of 5 microns.

Most people at the professional level do prefer other costly 3D printers but if you're a beginner starting 3D printing jewellery, Peopoly Moai is the ideal choice.

Formlabs Form 2 Formlabs is one of the most popular companies for SLA and SLS 3D printers. Form series of desktop SLA 3D printers is one of their best-known series.

Formlabs Form 2 is their newest and most improved SLA desktop printer which has gained high popularity in the jewellery industry. A special wax-castable SLA resin has also been developed by Formlabs to support 3D printing of castable pieces of jewellery.

Form 2 comes with mature software, a good ecosystem of resins and accessories that make it relatively easier to 3D print with resins. It offers extremely good print quality at a reasonable price.

EnvisionTEC Vida cDLM Vida cDLM, developed by EnvisionTEC and launched in 2017, is another 3D printer popular in the jewellery industry.

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This 3D printer has raised the bar with its new "behind the scenes" technology called cDLM. Developed based on DLP, cDLM provides continuous motion of the build plate while printing which reduces the print time by huge margins. It prints so fast that you can have prototypes for your jewellery within hours.

The amazing speed and details of printing are what makes EnvisionTEC Vida cDLM so popular with the jewellers. It makes use of Envision TEC's proprietary Easy Case 2.0 to produce models. The company claims that this material has the highest wax content available in 3D printing today.

Solidscape's S300 Series Solidscape, an American company, has released a series of 3D printers that can be considered some of the best 3D printers for the jewellery industry. The S300 series of wax printers, consisting of S350, S370 and S390 is a game-changer.

They have been specifically designed by designers and engineers for jewellers. The printers ensure reliable operation and are easy to use.

The three printers are capable of printing models with dissolvable supports which makes the surface of the desired models perfectly smooth. One of the best things about the S300 series is that they use non-toxic materials. You require no gloves while 3D printing with S350, S370, or S390.

The S350 and S370 are the two best-selling 3D printers from the series. Their most special feature is that the models produced with them require no post-processing, not considering the support dissolvant, which is a piece of cake.

The S390, a relatively expensive 3D printer, is a top-of-the-line 3D printer. It provides unrivalled quality and value to jewellers who 3D print models daily.

Priced at $55,650, it is obviously not that affordable but serious jewellery manufacturers do invest in this machine for its superior quality and features. In the long run, it saves a great deal of time and money.

WHAT IF YOU DON'T HAVE A 3D PRINTER? If you do not own a 3D printer and are not ready to invest in one either, you can always go for a 3D printing services.

These services provide 3D printing of high-quality jewellery pieces so that you can determine if it suits your needs and fulfils your expectations before buying a 3D printer for yourself.

Sculpteo, Shapeways, and i.Materialise are some of the popular 3D services available.

They provide a wide range of printing technologies, materials and finishes for you to choose from.

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You can try their services before investing in a 3D printer for your jewellery making needs.

CONCLUSION Like in most industries, Additive Manufacturing has taken over the way things work in the jewellery industry as well. 3D printing for making jewellery is a great idea if you want to create highly detailed and easily-castable parts in a short amount of time.

Happy Jewellery Printing!

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