Raw casting of a 14 KT white gold engagement ring.
The jewellery sector is one awash with artists and forward-thinkers, creators and risk-takers. Such are the personalities behind the rings, the piercings, the bracelets, and the necklaces that prop up the industry, it was always going to be one of the leading adopters of 3D printing technology. The creative freedom and the customisation capabilities were obvious enticers early on, but now, there’s a speed element, and a precision one too.
Jewellers’ Row, Philadelphia hosts more than 300 retailers, wholesalers and craftsmen. It is the oldest diamond district in the United States, and the second largest, losing out only to the one in New York. Since the mid-19th century it has been a hub of artistry, and since the late 1970s, it has been home to Casting Headquarters, a company serving many of its 300+ neighbours in casting, design and moulding capacities.
Casting HQ is made up of nine people. There are two diamond setters, a single jeweller, a single caster, two wax modellers, and three CAD designers. Ashley Gardner is one third of the CAD design team, six years into her career, after graduating with a jewellery-making degree from Tyler School of Art, Temple University. Her first experience with 3D printing came via a Solidscape T76, which was more than capable of delivering the desired detail, but perhaps not as quickly as she and her colleagues would like. It encouraged Casting HQ to install a 3D Systems ProJet MJP 2500, a 3D Systems machine brought to market specifically for jewellers to manufacture high resolution casts and moulds. Since the new system was purchased, the Solidscape has taken a backseat.
Why? “Because [the MJP 2500 is] just so much faster, and the waxes are super detailed.” For a company that likes to collaborate with its clients, rather than just serve them, this is a huge benefit.
“You can get a more precise product and you can work more closely with the customer because [they don’t always] come to you and tell you what they want and trust you to finish it,” Gardner tells TCT. “You can take them through each step in the process with super realistic details with computer renderings and then you can show them the wax models, they can envision it, and you can take them more closely through the process to get them to exactly what they want their piece to look like.”
Raw casting of a platinum wedding band.
Casting HQ’s expertise is frequently utilised for engagement rings and wedding bands, and so there’s little room for error. Working alongside each other, Gardner and the customer can design, and tweak, and iterate digitally, before having to manufacture the product. At this stage, there’s still potential for milling to be used in favour of 3D printing. It depends on the design, but the speed and quality of the ProJet MJP machine means, more often than not, 3D printing is the go-to method.
Limitations have arisen, however, in the duplication of antique pieces, like filigree rings, which were originally manufactured with stamping methods, whereby the metal is very thin, but very strong. Gardner says 3D printing and casting doesn’t allow them to manufacture something so slender that can last forever, like you can when making a piece by hand.
In New York, another small casting firm has harnessed a ProJet 2500 machine but, so far, ‘everything is perfect.’ Ragip Karamartin is a partner at Elite Casting, a company who has been providing a jewellery casting, model and mould making service for 20 years, and for the last few, custom orders with 3D printing. Like Casting HQ in Philadelphia, it previously used a Solidscape machine, but at the end of 2017 installed the 3D Systems platform. The quality of the output, Karamartin says, isn’t too dissimilar, but the difference in volume is startling. In a matter of hours, the ProJet can manufacture around 150 rings compared to the ten in a day on the Solidscape: “You’re getting a Renault instead of a Bambi [motorhome],” Karamartin analogises, “I think that’s why a lot of people are considering paying a little more for the [ProJet].”
Karamartin is fi rmly of the belief that time is money, and for that reason additive manufacturing (AM) offers the solution for high volume jewellery production. It’s also opened the door for small clients with one-of-a-kind pieces, ‘something we’ve never had before’, Karamartin admits. The machine is changing the way Elite Casting operates. A company of just 20 people isn’t feeling the strain when business picks up, because of a productive machine designed specifically to enhance the manufacture of jewellery casts.
“The business has shifted from old school manufacturing to the new system,” Karamartin says. “Instead of 100 people working on high end projects right now, everything is being done with the machine. One production person can manufacture 150 pieces a day. Now we have the machine which can do the same in three hours, and also overnight. The good thing is everything is identical. They all come out at the same weight, no human errors. It makes a big difference.”
Casting HQ and Elite Casting, though small in size, are working to serve customers of all varieties. Their work is a good test of AM technology, which is being harnessed to produce wax models, before casting takes place. Between the two companies, they are using ProJet 2500 machines to manufacture customised, unique, pieces, as well as other products in high volume. And they are doing so in quicker time than ever before, all the while maintaining the quality expected in pieces of jewellery.
The link between the two companies comes through Rich Motto and CADblu, the distributor who sold them the ProJet 2500 machines, and the company providing support as and when necessary. Motto, CEO and Founder of CADblu, has been in the jewellery industry for 38 years, began working with CAD/ CAM as early as 1991, and embraced additive technologies as their potential grew. The company provides an extensive selection of 3D printing systems and materials, including a wide variety of 3D Systems machines, having previously also supplied Solidscape platforms. It also lists the likes of Tiffany and Tacori among its customer base. Typically, it is these companies that tend to lead the way in incorporating contemporary technologies, like AM, into manufacturing processes, before the smaller players take inspiration. In Casting HQ and Elite Casting, CADblu has two clients taking full advantage of that trickle-down effect.
“3D printing is becoming more accessible for small businesses,” Motto said. “Currently, these companies can use this technology, not only for customised items, but also an effective way to reduce cost and time with small run production. Ultimately, they save time and money by skipping the modelling and mould-making process. We’re at a point where the jewellery industry, including small businesses, continues recognising the potential of 3D printing and adopting it as an integral part of their manufacturing process.”
