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Read articleThis article discusses how 3D printing is being used to produce high detail, custom jewelry through investment casting and direct metal printing.
The production of jewelry is one industry that has embraced 3D Printing. Many jewelers now use the technology to disrupt the way things were done for hundreds of years. 3D printing is now used to create the patterns for investment casting and to print jewelry directly.
This article introduces how 3D printing can be used to produce jewelry, discusses the most common technologies and materials and presents several limitations.
There are several advantages to using 3D printing to produce jewelry. These include:
3D printing is typically used to create jewelry via 2 methods; investment casting and direct printing.
One of the most popular methods of producing jewelry via 3D printing is the investment casting process. Investment casting produces parts through an 8 step process:
There are several requirements for a 3D printing technology to successfully produce jewelry molds for investment casting. These are:
Based on these requirements the two most suitable technologies and their associated materials for producing 3D printed patterns for investment casting are summarised below:
SLA/DLP SLA and DLP are both vat photopolymerization techniques that photocure a UV sensitive resin one layer at a time to produce a solid part. SLA and DLP are capable of producing smooth, high detail parts from castable resins that have a very low remaining ash percentage after burnout. Both SLA and DLP require support to accurately print parts. Support material generally has a detrimental impact on the surface of a print it is in contact with and must be removed once the print has been completed. Some of the more common SLA/DLP investment casting materials are presented in the table below:
Technology | Material producer | Material name |
---|---|---|
SLA | Formlabs | Castable resin |
SLA | DWS | DWS DC Series resins |
SLA | 3D Systems | VisiJet SL Jewel |
DLP | Envisiontec | PIC 100 C |
DLP | B9 Creator | B9R-4-Yellow Resin |
DLP | MoonRay | Castable resin |
DOD Drop-on-demand printing is a material jetting technique that uses 2 print jets; one to deposit a wax-like material over a build surface and another to deposit dissolvable support. The wax is deposited one layer at a time and a solid part is built up. DOD printers print at very high level of detail and offer several advantages over SLA/DLP printers including:
Technology | Material producer | Material name |
---|---|---|
DOD | Solidscape | Solidscape Model and Support |
A much less popular method of producing jewelry via 3D printing is directly printing parts from metal powder. Parts are able to be printed via gold, silver or platinum alloys and then require a significant amount of post-processed to an appropriate finish. Direct printing of jewelry is generally more expensive than investment casting, even for one-off pieces, and requires a very high level of precious powder management.
DMLS/SLM Direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) or selective laser melting (SLM) are powder bed fusion techniques used for the production of metal parts. To accurately produce parts DMLS/SLM require a significant amount of support to be included on the part during printing. High temperatures result in high levels of stress meaning parts are often susceptible to warping or deformation. This leads to significant post-processing being needed to remove the support and finish the surface where it was attached.
Technology | Material producer | Material name |
---|---|---|
DMLS | Cookson Precious Metals | ALNP000 18k 3N Yellow Gold Powder |
There are limitations on size of details (engravings) and features (prongs) that features are able to produce. These are summarized in the table below. All dimensions are in mm.
Technology | Minimal details | Minimum feature size |
---|---|---|
SLA/DLP | 0.2 | 0.3 - 1 |
DOD | 0.25 | 0.25 |
DMLS | 1 | 1 - 3 |
Correct burnout is a critical step to ensuring a good quality cast part in any investment casting procedure. A burnout that is too quick can cause the resin to expand and combust damaging the surface of the investment and in turn the detail of the finished castings. A burnout that does not reach high enough temperatures can leave resin or ash inside the investment, affecting metal flow and the surface finish of your metal part. Information on the recommended burnout procedure for 3D printed pattern materials should be obtained from the supplier to improve the likelihood of a successful cast.
This article offers an insight into the recommended burnout procedure for Formlabs Castable Resin.
For all process discussed in this article, support is a critical part of printers being able to accurately produce parts. While DOD technology uses dissolvable support, SLA and DMLS/SLM require the support to manually be removed. For these technologies, any surface that support is in contact with will require extra post-processing to achieve a smooth finish.
There is some resistance in the jewelry making industry towards the adoption of the 3D printers as people feel it removes the “handcrafted” aspect of the profession. Jewelry often an intimate and personal product and the manufacture of parts by a machine has seen several large jewelry manufacturers not embrace the technology.