Cooksongold, Hong Kong, part of the Heimerle + Meule Group, together with EOS, Germany, launched the Precious M 080 direct metal laser-sintering (DMLSTM) system at the Hong Kong Jewellery and Gem Fair. The process introduces an innovative and paradigm shifting technology to the luxury goods industry. Additive manufacturing paves the way for a completely new approach towards design and manufacturing, enabling design-driven manufacturing.
The Precious M 080 system is equipped with a 100-watt fiber laser, providing exceptional beam quality and power stability. This guarantees optimum and consistent processing conditions for highest quality part building. The system has a small spot size with excellent detail resolution allowing the creation of even the finest structures.
It is designed to ensure maximum accountability of the precious metal powder used in the process. The system also enables a quick turnaround between jobs and materials via its unique cartridge-based system which includes an extraction cartridge for easy removal of powder. The Precious M 080 has an 80 mm diameter round build platform with a working stroke of 95 mm (high, including building platform).
The advanced metal powders produced by Cooksongold have been optimized to match the performance of the Precious M 080 system, ensuring customers can start building parts immediately upon installation. The system can build parts using a variety of gold alloys and future development of additional materials to meet customer requirements is planned.
During the design process, customers must design with the capabilities of DMLS in mind and follow some critical design guidelines in order to achieve the best results. This enables production of pieces previously unachievable by conventional methods. A copy of the design guidelines can be accessed via the Cooksongold DMLS website.
Cooksongold will provide clients with detailed and fully comprehensive training packages for Precious M 080 machine operation and designing for DMLS. Training can either take place at the Cooksongold production and technical facility in Birmingham, UK prior to installation or at a client’s facility after machine installation.
EOS and Cooksongold recommend familiarization of the process capabilities first, so Cooksongold introduced a number of offers which are available for potential system purchase customers and bureau service customers. This will enable clients to test DMLS with their designs to begin to understand the benefits of the technology.
Testimonials
- Richard Hoptroff, London, is more accustomed than most at adopting new technology. He is the first watch maker to produce an atomic watch and is convinced that the DMLS technology offers him the best production solution available. “Critically for our enterprise, industrial 3D printing keeps batch sizes down,” he says. “The design can be changed quickly and complicated shapes that would be otherwise impossible can be created.”
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Johannes von Stumm, designer of the puzzle rings, wanted his designs 3D printed in gold rather than using traditional lost wax casting. “I create many different iterations of the same design and being able to change and immediately print a piece offers me great flexibility. With DMLS I send over my latest design which is simply printed and ready to polish. I am even able to send multiple files and have them printed together to save cost.”
Image caption —Atomic watch additively manufactured, 18K 3N, yellow gold. The watch took one week from design finalization to finished part. Courtesy of Hoptroff.
