【Massachusett】3D Printing in the Jewelry Industry: Desktop Metal Qualifies Sterling Silver for the “Production System”

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Editor’s Note

This article highlights a significant advancement in additive manufacturing, as Desktop Metal expands its high-speed 3D printing capabilities to include sterling silver. This development promises to streamline production for jewelry and luxury goods makers, enabling faster creation of intricate, high-quality items directly from digital designs.

Desktop Metal Qualifies Sterling Silver for High-Speed 3D Printing

Desktop Metal (NYSE: DM) announced that 925 sterling silver, a popular precious metal, is now qualified for 3D printing on the Production System platform, including the P-1 and P-50. This provides jewelry and luxury goods manufacturers with a rapid method to directly 3D print high-quality jewelry, watches, belt buckles, and decorative hardware for handbags.

“Qualifying precious metals for direct 3D printing on high-speed binder jetting systems is a significant milestone for the jewelry and luxury goods industry,” said Ric Fulop, Founder and CEO of Desktop Metal. “The full design freedom and customization of 3D printing can now be delivered directly in high volumes, without the labor associated with traditional manufacturing methods. Furthermore, this new direct 3D printing innovation builds on the established legacy of our ETEC brand, which has been a leader in 3D printers for investment casting patterns for over a decade – making us the undisputed market leader in comprehensive additive manufacturing solutions for the jewelry and luxury goods market.”
Partnerships to Advance Technology and Material Development

To advance the technology and materials needed to deliver top-tier 3D printing quality, productivity, and economics to the demanding luxury and jewelry market, Desktop Metal is partnering with two leading companies in precious metal powder and part manufacturing: Formula 3D Corporation, founded by Christian Tse of Christian Tse Designs & Manufacturing Inc. for the US market, and Neoshapes for the international customer base. Both collaborations aim to enable the luxury and jewelry market to adopt metal binder jetting for producing end-use parts from precious metals, steels, and other materials.

Formula 3D Corporation offers designers and manufacturers a complete end-to-end solution for 3D printing precious metals – from design to beautiful, customer-ready quality jewelry. A new video released with Christian Tse shows how this Monrovia, California-based luxury design and manufacturing company uses the Desktop Metal Production System P-1 to reinvent its jewelry production.

“The Desktop Metal Production System increases production efficiency, brings new designs to market faster, and offers our customers greater versatility and multiple styling options. We can actually print in precious metal in two hours what we achieve with casting in two days,” said Christian Tse. “Furthermore, manufacturing jewelry with Binder Jetting provides new options to bypass some of the challenges in the jewelry industry’s supply chain. We can avoid shipping delays and assembly costs, as well as avoid tariffs, by printing the sterling silver directly instead of shipping the physical metal.”

Neoshapes, a Swiss company based in Geneva founded by experienced executives from the luxury goods industry, pursues an end-to-end approach – from manufacturing and delivering powder to printing and post-processing precious metal components, along with consulting services that enable industry players to seamlessly transition their production processes to binder jet technology.

“Binder Jetting opens new perspectives for the luxury industry, even more so now with the qualification of precious metal alloys, which provides further leverage for developing and manufacturing creative products from a single file and represents a leap into the digital supply chain. The time-to-market for new creative products is also considerably shortened, allowing brands to better meet demand while maintaining minimal inventories,” says Stéphane Vigié, Co-founder of Neoshapes.
Binder Jetting Ushers in a New Era for Jewelry Manufacturing

The Production System’s Single Pass Jetting (SPJ) technology, which enables high-speed metal 3D printing, allows jewelers a fully digital and flexible manufacturing workflow. Jewelers gain greater design flexibility and control, enabling designers and manufacturers to scale new designs that were previously impossible or required significant manual effort to produce – such as chain link bracelets or necklaces where the links can be 3D printed in one piece instead of being manually assembled individually. Furthermore, jewelers can leverage additive manufacturing for local production, reducing reliance on global supply chains with long lead times and creating opportunities for reshoring manufacturing.

The benefits of additive manufacturing for luxury goods and jewelry applications are significant:
– Individual customization and design freedom at high volumes.

Desktop Metal is also advancing the development of other precious metal alloys in 2022, including 18-karat yellow gold, and is actively researching and developing rose gold. Desktop Metal and its polymer brand ETEC have long collaborated with major jewelry manufacturers worldwide, including Cartier, Stuller, Shinola, and Swarovski.

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⏰ Published on: June 10, 2022