Jewelry Printer

3D printing has revolutionized how jewelry is made. Precision and attention to detail are the key aspects of quality jewelry, which is exactly where 3D printing shines.

Before we really get into it, it’s important to realize that “3D printing jewelry” doesn’t mean directly producing end-use pieces of jewelry. In other words, jewelers don’t 3D print golden rings, for example. Instead, they 3D print highly detailed wax models of the desired rings, which are later used to make molds.

The Process

To completely understand the basics of how jewelry is 3D printed, imagine you’re a jeweler who needs to 3D print 100 custom-made, highly detailed golden rings. The first thing you’d need to do is to model the desired ring in CAD and later export the model as a file compatible with your 3D printer.

The next step would be to 3D print 100 models of that exact ring. Following that, you’d need to glue a few of the rings (100 if possible, at once) together on a plastic or wax stand. This would later be put in a bin where the material for the mold would be poured.

When the mold hardens, it’s put in an oven to melt the rings and the stands. This leaves an empty space on the inside for a certain material, such as gold, to be poured into.

It may sound like a complex process, but in fact it’s much faster than conventional means.