Metal 3D Printing Used To Craft Unique Jewelry Designs
Services Used: 3D Metal Printing, Polishing, Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD)
Materials: Ti-64
Quantity: 45 Pcs.
Meet Veronica Nunes
“I am a Brazilian jewelry designer, goldsmith and founder of VNunes. I started my jewelry line in 2009, when I was living in NYC and had my own studio in Brooklyn. I take inspiration from nature and architecture to design my collections. As a jewelry designer, I am focused on designing attractive wearable objects that will enhance and fit the human body comfortably.”
Initial Concepts
Veronica tested her ideas with many drawings such as these. After all, beautiful designs don’t spring to life automatically. They are the result of carefully refining profiles, proportions, light and heavy spaces until the perfect balance is achieved.
The 3D Printed Project
Veronica finally settled on her designs for a necklace, ring and earrings, and teamed up with Star Rapid on a joint project to bring these art pieces to life. However they still needed to be modified to conform to the unique requirements of 3D metal printing, which can be a challenging exercise in design engineering.
Designing for Additive Manufacturing
Although she is a trained designer with experience in CAD, Veronica had never worked before with the specific demands and limitations of the 3D metal printing process. Therefore, she collaborated closely with our engineer Chloe Kow to make slight modifications for optimal results. Here are some highlights.
Recommendations Following Design Review
Some of the recommended design modifications included:
Wire Detail
Moving Parts
Overhang
Blade Detail
Preparing the Machine
Our Renishaw AM250 printer is a state-of-the-art direct metal laser melting (DMLM) machine. It uses a 200W ytterbium laser to fully melt metal powders into dense solids.
Printing
Our engineer input the program into the control software which sliced the design into thousands of discrete 2D layers. Now it was time to start printing!
These parts can only be removed from the build plate by cutting or grinding them free. This is a relatively easy task for small jewelry but it can be a big project on larger pieces.
Notice also the careful part orientation. Our engineer arranged the parts to make maximum use of the build volume while also limiting the number of supports and preserving the part’s geometry. This is important for conserving time, material and cost during the build.
Want To Learn more about Metal 3D Printing?
A great project like this is the product of careful engineering, manufacturing expertise and close collaboration with the client every step of the way. If you’d like to know more about how to design for metal 3D printing, we offer free online metal 3d printing video tutorials.
Star Rapid no longer offers metal 3D printing services. However, we remain fully committed to helping our customers reach their product development goals by offering a variety of rapid prototyping and low-volume manufacturing services.
If you are looking for metal 3D printing tips, check out our online video tutorials.