How will this affect the jewlery industry?

[strmrdr]

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.12/view.html?pg=4

simular machines are allready being used to generate wax for casting rings.
When the prices come down so consumers can afford them how will it affect the jewlery industry?

 

[strmrdr]

I could see myself designing a ring in a cad program printing out the wax and taking it to my designer to have it cast and finished.
Or how about this:
A web based app where the client combines the features they want in a ring.
Basically a simplified cad software.
Then the jeweler/designer edits it as needed prints out the wax and creates the ring from it.
This is already being done with small run prototyping for industrial use or one of design/manufactoring of small parts.

I think the possibilities are very exciting.

 

[strmrdr]

I see what you mean about it needing a lot of work before it is ready to cast.
Point taken about designing a ring doesnt make one a designer.

 

[Diermint]

G''day Strmrdr,

Yes, there are a range of nice rapid prototyping technologies out there at the moment and they are getting better and better.

Below is a picture of a heart-valve made from a range of special biodegradable polymers I developed for tissue-engineering to use on one of these machines. It was made on an older machine - about 12 years old now and you can see the individual strands that were laid down, each one is about one quarter of a mm in diameter, the whole model about one inch diameter. The step-like pattern was ideal for growing cells so in this case it was an advantage. The machines available today have a much better resolution than this but they still show this step-like surface. It would be fantastic for making a prototype of a ring to show a customer though and there are quite a number of different technologies available for this kind of application.
Some of the materials available are designed so that they can be machined or sanded afterwards to remove the stepped surface if desired.
I reckon it''s really cool that you can email a design to someone who has one of these machines and they can actually print it out and hold it in their hand. Beats a picture any day.

Diermint.

 

[Diermint]

A better view.

 

[strmrdr]

kewl Diermint thanks for the pictures.