In recent years, 3D printing technology has developed rapidly, and breakthroughs have been made in innovative applications in professional fields such as gold and jewelry. The combination of 3D printing, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and other scientific and technological means has created favorable opportunities for the personalization, digitization and intellectualization of the gold and jewelry industry. With the development of 3D printing technology in the gold and jewelry industry, through digital technology, shorten the production process, broaden the design inspiration, and make the products present unprecedented artistic visual effects. 3D printing technology is gradually becoming the innovation engine of Intelligent Manufacturing in the gold and jewelry industry.
Application of 3D printing technology
Gold jewelry sales is the information integration of design, display, interaction, sales, resources, technology, supply chain and other links. The traditional gold jewelry manufacturing process needs to go through many processes, such as plate setting, mold pressing, waxing, mold repair and so on. Not only the procedure is complex, but also the cost of equipment, place, materials, labor and time is very high. 3D printing technology is different from traditional manufacturing methods. It is the continuation of intelligent jewelry design and digital manufacturing. Traditional manufacturing belongs to "material reduction manufacturing", while 3D printing technology is "material addition manufacturing". It is a technology that uses metal or plastic and other related materials to form objects by accurately adding materials layer by layer according to the computer digital model.
The progress of 3D printing technology in the gold jewelry industry has impacted the traditional jewelry production mode. At present, there are two main technical solutions for 3D printing applied to the jewelry industry:
One is 3D printing technology that directly prints precious metal entities, namely laser sintering technology. It is a additive manufacturing process based on 3D CAD design. It takes a 3D CAD file as the digital information source and energy setting, and sinters a very small metal powder layer into a three-dimensional part through a high-power laser beam.
The other is the use of 3D printing wax mold (projet Technology) and resin mold (DLP / SLA Technology), using the lost wax casting process. This scheme improves the speed and accuracy of the most critical wax mold making process in the traditional jewelry manufacturing process, and can realize rapid mass production. Whether 3D printing technology is directly or indirectly used in jewelry manufacturing, it will simplify the current jewelry production process and promote the development of the industry towards personalized, refined and digital intelligent manufacturing.
3D printing precious metals (SLM technology / SLS Technology) technology is mainly used in aerospace, high-precision and cutting-edge manufacturing and other high value-added fields. The direct use of expensive precious metal 3D printers to print jewelry has low cost performance and is not suitable for large-scale mass production.
Therefore, at present, the main application of the jewelry industry is 3D printing wax mold technology, which adopts the lost wax casting process, and the process accuracy can reach micron level. Through professional 3D design software system, online interactive system, material library, model library, display platform, etc., we can use the database resources in the system to independently select and design jewelry and quickly generate product elements, After the product order is generated, it is printed into wax mold with high ratio 3D printer, and then produced by lost wax casting process, which can restore the design style in situ and quickly respond to the market demand.
Advantages of 3D printing in gold and jewelry industry
Digital production is exquisite and accurate, which solves the manufacturing problem of complex structure. Compared with traditional manufacturing, complex structures cannot be completed by hand, and 3D printing technology can make up for this artificial "hard injury". 3D printing technology uses computer technology to establish a three-dimensional model and import the system digital production according to the demand. It can quickly produce high-precision and complex process jewelry that cannot be realized by traditional manufacturing, which is conducive to the development of advanced customization, seize the high-end market and improve customer satisfaction.
Reduce labor and production costs. 3D printing omits relevant steps such as prototype making and mold making, greatly reduces the production period and material cost, and has the advantages of simple operation, rapid prototyping, high precision, saving raw materials and reducing losses. At the same time, 3D scanning is combined with CAD reverse design software to greatly improve the design efficiency, rapid iteration and enhance the competitiveness of products.
