Ever wondered how 3D scanning can improve your jewelry design and manufacturing business? 3D scanning is a fast, accurate and cost-effective method of capturing detailed information of jewelry pieces into digital data. By incorporating 3D scanning into your workflow, you will not only save money and manufacturing costs but you will also be able to meet a variety of demands in the market. In this article, we list just six ways that your business can incorporate 3D scanning when designing and manufacturing jewelry pieces.
1. Modify Existing Designs
By scanning an existing jewelry piece, you now have a base design which you can easily make modifications to, using a CAD software. This means that you can create a line of similar designs without needing to take the original jewelry piece apart. In addition, with the base design file, you can easily restyle old jewelry pieces to give them a modern feel or tweak one design to be incorporated into various jewelry items such as earrings, pendants and charm bracelets.
2. Create Customized Designs
Inspiration is all around us, but turning ideas into reality may have been difficult previously because certain items are too difficult to measure to use as a starting point for your design work. That’s now a thing of the past! With 3D scanning, you can scan just about anything to be used in your design such as a piece of rock, a leaf or even your pet’s paws! Widen your creative horizons and create personalized items for your customers which can serve as beautiful memorabilia.
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3. Create Designs that Fit Perfectly
Never worry about precious gemstones not being able to fit into your designs. With 3D scanning, you can create designs meant to fit perfectly around the stone by simply scanning the stones beforehand. This guarantees that the final product will fit the gemstone, regardless, meaning you no longer need to worry about a wrong fit or potentially breaking the gemstone. In addition, you can also scan your customers’ engagement rings which will provide you with the outline that you can then use to create a customised wedding band designed to fit nicely with the engagement ring.
4. Replicate Existing Jewelry
By keeping a digital copy of your existing jewelry pieces, you can create replicas in different sizes, thickness and materials. This means you can wear an identical version of a family heirloom while preserving the original in a safe place so you never need to worry about your precious jewelry being damaged or lost. You can also use your digital archives to re-create jewelry pieces that may have been lost (such as one side of a pair of earrings).
5. Repair Damaged Jewelry
Even if you did not already have a digital copy of a jewelry piece, you can still repair a damaged or broken piece by scanning the existing piece and remaking it. Due to the high accuracy of 3D scanners, you will be able to design the perfect fix, especially when used together with a 3D printer to print a custom mold for the fitted piece.
6. Quality Inspection
3D scanning captures accurate, detailed information about jewelry pieces which allows you to quickly compare as-built to as-designed. By 3D scanning design molds or jewelry pieces, you can easily identify any faults or design flaws, allowing you to fix manufacturing defects easily before production.
Besides the various ways in which you can incorporate 3D scanning into your jewelry business as illustrated, it is a good practice to 3D scan all your existing jewelry pieces (and molds, if any) as a digital archive. This digital file may be useful in valuation purposes, especially in cases where you may need to claim insurance for loss of items, for example. In addition, keeping a digital archive allows you to save legacy designs that may otherwise be lost if the physical copies disintegrate. In addition, digital archiving means you no longer need to find physical storage space for physical models.
Still hesitant about trying 3D scanning and want to know more? Contact us for more information on how our scanners can assist you in designing and creating your dream jewelry pieces!
