3d Printing In Jewellery Design

How 3D printers improve jewelry casting

A jewelry piece casted with a 3D printed investment pattern.

Jewelers face three major challenges in their work

Customers expect their jewelry to have exclusive look and feel
Traditional jewelry making techniques are time-consuming and hard to master
Each change in the design requires a new investment pattern

An entire jewelry casting tree can be 3D printed in a matter of hours with no need for a traditional, multi-stage assembly process.

A resin 3D printer can produce multiple jewelry casting trees in a single day making the process less labor-intensive and more cost-efficient.

Desktop resin 3D printers can work with microscopic precision, so small yet intricate features can be included in jewelry designs.

High quality castable resins have physical properties nearly identical to wax, so they can be processed with the same set of tools and used with the same investments.

Step 1: Prototyping

Multiple iterations of a design are 3D printed with standard resin.

Step 4: Casting

The pattern is used to make a mold for the target material.

Step 2: Fitting

3D printed models are used for fitting and gathering customer's feedback.

Step 3: Investment pattern

Castable resin is used to 3D print an investment pattern of the final design.

Step 1: Prototyping

Multiple iterations of a design are 3D printed with standard resin.

Step 2: Fitting

3D printed models are used for fitting and gathering customer's feedback.

Step 3: Investment pattern

Castable resin is used to 3D print an investment pattern of the final design.

Step 4: Casting

The pattern is used to make a mold for the target material.

Some castable resins can be hand-shaped after printing to achieve intended level of detail

Resin 3D printers are precise enough to print inticate, filigree desings out of castable resins.

3D printed patterns have the same burnout properties as wax.

Resin 3D printers can print even relatively large desings.

Multiple models can be printed in one printing session.

Filigree designs

Intricate light-weight middle-eastern style jewelry is made with highly precise cartable resins like BlueCast LS Original.

Small designs

Small designs like engagement rings are made with dimensionally accurate castable resins like BlueCast X5

Large designs

Investment patters of large designs need resins like BlueCast X10 that combine smooth surfaces with excellent burnout properties.

Precise models

The UV LCD technology in Zortrax Inkspire is considered the most suitable for jewelry casting due to its high precision and speed.