3D printing with silver and other metals opens up numerous new possibilities.
One of the highest quality rapid prototyping variants is undoubtedly 3D printing with silver, although metal 3D printing with bronze, copper or brass also guarantees elegant designs. It is therefore not surprising that artists and designers are increasingly relying on metal and especially silver 3D printers for the production of filigree and individualized jewelry.
Since the beginning of silver 3D printing in 2011, the number of suppliers of 3D printed jewelry has increased by leaps and bounds.
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US pioneers in 3D printing with silver
As early as 2007, 2 MIT graduates founded in Sommerville, Massachusetts a design studio that would soon specialize in 3D printing with silver and other metals. The two young women have been developing there for several years now with considerable success jewelry and works of art on the computer, in order to then turn them into reality using 3D files on the 3D printer. You can tell from their work that the two MIT graduates have completed scientific studies. The young startup likes to use models from nature, such as a leaf, to translate them into appropriate designs and jewelry. It is precisely at this point that 3D printing technology opens up completely new possibilities for implementing filigree shapes (such as the fine structure of a leaf) that would be difficult or impossible to achieve with conventional manufacturing processes. In addition to silver 3D printing, the two designers also use 3D printing with stainless steel and plastic in their work.
The beginnings of metal 3D printing in Germany
In Germany, an artist started out Kempen on the Lower Rhine in 2012 as one of the first designers in Germany to use metal 3D printing to produce jewelry pendants and metal sculptures to put. The Kempen designer is particularly fascinated by the new 3D printing technologies because of the possibility of creating individualized design objects. With the help of silver 3D printing technology, the artist created personalized one-offs from the Scrappies family of figures in 2012, for which he secured start-up financing via the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo. Like the two MIT graduates mentioned above, the designer from Kempen not only relies on silver and metal 3D printing, but also on other 3D printing materials, in this case ceramics and plastic.
Asian jewelry print
In Singapore In 2012, a group of creative people (jewelry designers) interested in 3D printing jewelry came together to create, above all chains and rings to be offered in an individualized form. Gifts with a special romantic guarantee can be easily realized with this 3D printing application, especially since individual lettering is one of the most popular models. Precious metals such as sterling silver are used as 3D printing materials.
These are just 3 of numerous examples from the art and design world where 3D printing with silver and other precious metals has now become standard.
From wax model to silver casting
In concrete terms, silver 3D printing is based on the fact that a high-precision 3D printer using the MultiJet Printing process creates layers of microfine droplets wax model of the planned design object. The actual silver object is only created in the next step, albeit in a very traditional process that the ancient Egyptians already mastered. It is essentially based on the fact that a cast of the wax model from the 3D printer is created in a ceramic mass heated in the oven, which is then filled with liquid silver. State-of-the-art technology and ancient craftsmanship go hand in hand in this manufacturing process.
MultiJet, the basis of silver 3D printing
The MultiJet 3D printing process forms a kind of hybrid of stereolithography and FDM processes. A liquid, light-sensitive plastic (in this case, as explained above, a special wax) is applied to a printing platform via a print head (similar to the extruder nozzle in fused deposition modeling) and immediately cured using a light source contained in this print head, whereby particularly detailed 3D models are possible.
3D printed gold jewelry.
The silver used for silver 3D prints is of material quality traditionally used by jewellers. This so-called Sterling silver consists of 92.5% silver and the remaining 7.5% copper and is therefore safe to wear on the skin.
The 3D printing solution for business customers
With the 3D online configurator, 3D Activation offers business customers the opportunity to design individual jewelry or other accessories (such as mobile phone covers) for their employees without the need for a CAD program. The company only needs to integrate the 3D online configurator into its own website, but it can also use it as a stand-alone solution on a tablet or on a PC in a 3D printing shop. The applications of the 3D online configurator range from the visualization and configuration of your own product ideas to the selection of size, material and text templates (including support for many different fonts) to the export of printable STL files. In addition, the 3D tool can be easily integrated into existing web shops and offers an interface for local shops and online shops.
On our website you will find our 3D online configurator as well as lots of other information, especially about materials and 3D printing processes.
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