3D Printing Used to Make Gold Jewelry Displays
The requirements: Designing and 3D printing a thin, paper like structure for displaying gold jewelry for a design company in Dubai.
Monogram, a design company in Dubai Design District (D3), approached Bright Mind with a gold jewelry display project. The idea was to design and fabricate displays for jewelry that is made by Monogram.
Our client wanted the displays to have "paper like" look and feel; thin and with paper folding textures. The desired height of each model was 60.0 cm, and the desired thickness was only 2.0 mm. The displays are also required to feel very smooth to the touch, and to have a white color that brightens under light, but does not reflect light much.
So how was this project done?
Stage 1: Design
Bright Mind and Monogram designed the gold displays together inspired by the work of paper folding artists that was published online. Some of that work in the next photo:
We used AutoCad Inventor and 3ds Max to design the CAD 3D models for this project.
Stage 2: 3D printing
After the 3D models were designed, its time to 3D print them. We 3D printed the models with large format FDM 3D printers. The real challenge in 3D printing these designs was their thin wall structure; the thickness of each model was only 2.0 mm.
This thin structure can create two types of problems:
Problem 1 Weak bed adhesion: The thin structure of the models meant that the surface area between the model being 3D printed and the printer's heated bed will be relatively small. Small contact area might lead to weak adhesion causing the 3D printed part to fall off the printer while its being printed.
Solution: We 3D printed the model with high bed temperature (110 C) which helped the model to stick better to the bed. We also used a brim that helped increasing the surface area between the printed part and the printer's bed.
Problem 2 Vibration: The thin structure of the model meant the printed model will vibrate as the top layers print; the thin tall structure acts like a cantilever and vibrates as the printer's head deposits more material into the model's top layers. The model vibrating while its printing can cause many issues, for example: layer separation, and layer shifts.
Solution: We set the 3d printer to print the lower layers with high speed, and the top layers with low speed. We actually lowered the printing speed of the top layers to 30 mm/s. With this low printing speed we made sure that the models will print in a stable manner.
After the models were 3D printed, they were post processed professionally to give them the smooth and professional look. They were painted with flat white color to give the right look under the display light.
The models were used as displays in a gold jewelry shop in Dubai Mall.
This project is a good example of the value 3D printing adds when it comes to rapid prototyping; the models were fabricated even though they were geometrically challenging, and the project was finished in only one week.
It was great to work on this project with Monogram, and we thank them for their review:
" We had a good experience working with Bright Mind, and we appreciate their prompt response and diligence "