Iridium jewellery?

[PhillipSchmidt]

This is all I could find.

Iridium: A hard, brittle metal which is difficult to work mechanically, iridium is usually alloyed with platinum (with iridium being less than 20%). The alloy is then used in robust electrical contacts, precision resistance winding, and in jewelry, especially for setting diamonds. Alloys of iridium with osmium (osmiridium) and ruthenium are used extensively for making the tips of fountain pen nibs and other products of powder metallurgy. Iridium can be used in sensitive equipment where contact with mercury is necessary, as the metal is not ‘wetted’ by the liquid metal. The most corrosion-resistant of all elements, iridium is also used to make crucibles and high temperature lab equipment. Iridium sells for about 40% of the value of rhodium (making it about four time more expensive than gold).

Does anybody know of anyone who works with Iridium?

I know it makes a nice alloy for plat and is cheaper in polating rhodium, but can it be cast, or are there alloys which make it malliable?

Let me know, I am in the dark...

 

[valeria101]

No idea...

The latest jewelry metal I know of is Zirconium!

 

[PhillipSchmidt]

Me either Ana,

I don''t know anything about Zirconium, the name sounds interesting.

I was posed the question here but nothing will come of it, so I won''t worry.

Thanks for replying.

I have been on a mission since I learnt about platinum alloys, because I know off hand what a difference it can make. When I hear that some scratch, I scratch my head, but when I hear of discolouration I can imagine why...

I have looked into having plat 900 10% iridium alloyed here and though it is pretty easy there are questions as to whether I''d have a market for non-950. I''d like to use that, as I see it''s benefits but I can only argue it has much more platinum voume then 950 with cobalt. Interseting and true

I want to re-ask the question about ring design, but I will post that seperatly

Cheers,

Phillip

 

[boonerings]

I''ve had someone ask about making a ring out of it. They were sourcing a bar for me to work from. I told him I''d try it if he could find the stock.

 

[valeria101]

Date: 12/8/2004 3:46:44 AM
Author: Platinumsmith

I don''t know anything about Zirconium, the name sounds interesting.

Not sure who started with the idea - all I''ve seen made are inexpensive bands marketed for the exotic black finish.

This (LINK) shop seems to have taken Zr seriously. I am not aware of others online.

 

[PhillipSchmidt]

Interesting page Ana,

I am looking at it now.

All I know about irridium is that is cheap. If it can be alloyed to work, or cast on it''s own, it may have merrit.

I asked about getting iridium too Brian, it isn''t hard to get. I haven''t bought any, as yet. I imagine it is easy enough to refine though, should you need some gopper etc...

Phillip

 

[PhillipSchmidt]

Ana,

They have a lot to choose from!! Would you ever be interested in titanium jewellery? I believe it has become more fashionable with men.

Me I''d have tungston (spelling), after all my saw has these as tips, so it must be good!

Phillip

 

[PhillipSchmidt]

You have opened up a whole new world to me Ana,

This is what I found on a link. re: Iridium.

I like this stuff better - non, non-corrosive. White like platinum, etc

http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Ir/key.html

 

[valeria101]

Date: 12/13/2004 7:11:39 AM
Author: Platinumsmith

Ana, [...] Would you ever be interested in titanium jewellery?

Ti ? Sure. That diaphanous weight in something very seriously metal-looking feals out of this world. And the dark gray of brushed Titanium makes any color stand out for me. Among jewelry metals, it's a close #2 to me.

In all honesty though... I am not much of a trend-setter for jewelry. More of the book-worm-with-exotic-tastes type.

You know about these guys (LINK), right ? Not sure how the prices sound to you, for lab fare seems ok.

 

[PhillipSchmidt]

Oxford UK, pounds, hmmm...

Very strange pricing structure. .5 is cheaper than .1, and they only go as thick as .5

I''d have to get pretty creative to make something. Better leave it for the jewellery school students, the rich ones...

It suggests it can be worked on though (at least it can be annealed). I will buy some from the refiners when I get my lamel back. See if I can make a plain band. ~If it doiesn''t work, I''ll still have an alloy to melt with pure platinum, so no loss.

Phillip

platinumsmith

 

[earnie]

Dear Platinumsmith

We are discussing the same issue because recently we purchased some 4mm iridium rods for a fuel cell experiment which finally failed so I was seeking for another application - jewellery.

Soon it turned out that there is very little information about handling, casting or welding of that material. A colleague of mine - she is goldsmith - assumed, that the most promising way to make use of the material would be to integrate it like a gemstone. The reason for that conclusion is our experience with the metal in annealed condition:

Iridium showes very unusual and remarkable mechanical properties. In annealed condition it is ductile but shows virtually no elasticity. If you drop the rod, it will deform from its own weight - not as far as lead would do but in the same manner. Despite of that tendency the surface hardness is surprisingly high. As it easily scratches glass I would suppose a hardness of more than 7 on the Mohs scale.

Beyond the plastic deformation it suddenly becomes very brittle and will immediately brake when attempting further deformation.

The rods itself were drawn like a wire and show under the microscopy fibrous structures at the cutting edge - as if you cut a glass fibre rod. Maybe this has to do with the manufacturing method at J&M.

Apart from that Iridium has indeed a very beautiful appearance. It looks rather like polished silver than like platinum and is among Osmium the most dense non radioactive substance - according the literature 22400 kg/m³. The measured density of our 390 (999 fine) material is slightly lower at 22900 kg/m².

Chemically it is generally more corrsion resistant than platinum. Bu other than platinum it will slightly be attacked by hypocloric acid - unfortunately an unwanted by-product when electrolyzing an aquaeous NaCl-solution for which it was intended.

Maybe the very low abundance of the metal is the main obstacle for wider application. In average only 2% of all mined PGM is iridium. Consequently the annual production is somehow between 2 and 3 tons.

However - it would be nice to find out more about making some jewellery out of that material. As it is far cheaper than Pt but at least as beautiful it could make an exclusive but not so expensive piece fot the woman who don´t want to go with the mass.

Earnie

 

[PhillipSchmidt]

Thank you Earnie,

Very interesting information.

I would have suspected it hardens very fast and becomes very brittle like some platinum alloys do. I had no idea about the look before your post. It sounds ideal. The polish you could get would be amazing. It certainly would make for good jewellery, but only where it is work-hardened, any repair (ie resizing), would render it useless and this would be an important considertation especially where it was gem set. Hardness of claws/prongs is everything in jewellery.

The detraction is that it can not be used in a piece which involves soldering. This makes my working with it, restricted as my manufacturing techniques invariably involve soldering. It would need to be machined from a work-hardened tube to create a ring, for example. Otherwise there may be a method of hardening it - perhaps an acid in which to quench it. I don''t know...

On that point, if there is such a method, the same could be used on platinum and have a drastic affect on the quality of platinum jewellery produced worlwide.

Another way to harden it, is to tumble or barrel it in metal shot. This has a slight affect on platinum. In a larger machine then we bench workers use, I think platinum could be work hardened after time, though I have not seen it done. Perhaps irridium is more affected then platinum and this application could be used with good results.

There is one more method that could help, should complimenting techniques be developed, and that is to use a lazer welder throughout. Lazer welders don''t anneal the metal, (well other metals at least) and perhaps the manufacture could be fine tuned to at least avoid annealing it near to the stage it is ready for welding.

How brittle does it get? Given time and constant annealing, I am sure I could fashion it into any shape. I am sure it would solder as well as platinum. I don''t know what the heat properties are. I am certian it won''t oxidise and be easily fused (at what temperature?). So we have a nice ring, but unless we can harden it, soft like lead...

My research has shown me that I should expect to pay about the same for iridium as for 18k gold. I am sure that figure could be improved.

I suspect the specialed techniques, the extra forging expenses and the overall time it would take to make an excellent irridium piece would negate it as cheap alternative. The density, colour, inertness and rarity of the metal might qualify it in the platinum price range.

Like platinum the obvious alternative could be to add an alloy. This would likely take years of trial and error before a suitable alloy was found, though 10% of something might make a lot of difference and allow another white alternative. 10% Platinum would be an interesting start. Perhaps 25%, as in the case of most w/gold might be a better alternative. I don''t think it would be too hard to alloy.

I think there is a huge market for a cheaper white precious metal. If it was workable, then I believe a new product with the above mentioned characteristics could be marketed into something huge

- while supplies last...

Thanks again,

Phillip

I think I''d like to have a go at this.

 

[perry]

Working with pure Iridium is probably out - for the same reason that we don''t work with pure gold, or pure platinum, or pure silver, or even pure iron (steel is an Iron alloy), etc.

The fact is that pure metals are almost never usefull for anything practicle.

Alloying a few % of something else tends to provide marvelous properties (up to 20% would be reasonable).

I have no doubt that the proper alloy of Iridium would be marvelous... The problem is then to find a metalurgist, or someone who is willing to work with a metalurgist, who is willing to work on the problem (and experiment with some simple alloys).

Off hand, I''d be willing to play with this if I had access to the right shop: But currently I do not have such access.

Things needed are: Access to a metalugist who is willing to help - I figure that I can get some help from my Alma-mater on that even though they are several hours away (I am an engineer). Then I need the ability to melt, cast, and do simple machine and testing work to the alloys to get basic properties (I could probably find the simple test equipment). Finally there would need to be some stess-elongation and fatigue curves curves generated for the material (again I think I could work with my Alma- mater on this: Someone''s reasearch project in college).

Once we found a promising alloy - then we could make a ring, or three, or seven, or nine...

So if anyone knows of a location to do melting casting and testing of experimental alloys in NE Wisconsin - let me know.


Perry

 

[PhillipSchmidt]

Let me know how you go Perry.

I agree that it will have to be alloyed.

You''d have to imagine that the others metals in the platinum group would be usfull: ruthenium is cheap, osmiridium is also used. These alloys already have an industrial application. I''d start by looking into sourcing the already alloyed product. Might be worth buying a few thousand pen nibs and melting them down

Cheers,

Phillip

 

[perry]

I''ll keep my eyes open for a place to do such experimets; but be advised I may never find it. I wont approach the Univeristy until I have a place, then I will need at least several thousands of $ to purchase metal stock (and it would not be hard to spend $10,000+ in metal).

This is a long term idea project; not something I am actively persuing.

There are several other base metals I would be interested in researching as well.

Perry

 

[earnie]

Dear Platinumsmith and Perry

your considerations regarding the desired properties of a "workable metal" seem very reasonable. I made no experience by my own - except with these little rods. But beware of, I can´t afford to solder them or cut them into pieces, cause I still need them as electrodes.

The problem with Ir is also that you should know somebody from J&M or Engelhardt in order to get solid pieces for experiments. (That´s what I will do for the nearest step). This is because the indicated bullion price refers exclusively to the genuine Ir powder, which remains in the pot, when everything else is dissolved by the aqua regia for platinum refining. If you buy pre-fabricated solid metal pieces, it will cost you in the range of the bullion price of gold - exept you can get scrap.

My vision of working with Ir is making very simple forms - just rods or toroids for rings and joint them by mechanical means such as screws or bolts and/or use that as a base for mechanical fixing of other material on demand. It is clear that such an approach does never suit to general jewellery-making - but in special cases it could be applied.

Scientific data about annealing and hardening behavior is available under

http://www.platinummetalsreview.com/jmpgm/index.jsp

To my mind, Ir alloys with Ir as the dominant metal are not available or to say the least are not in use.

Os at quantities, particularly in powder form, is extremely dangerous, cause it forms an oxide which is a liquid!! at room temperature. That oxide is supposed to be one of the most cancerogene and poisonous substances ever discovered. Personally I would also avoid Ruthenium, cause it forms a similar but less harmful oxide.

I would be glad to establish a discussion about experiences with pure Ir working. custom specific alloys probably cost a fortune.

Regards

earnie

 

[valeria101]

Date: 1/21/2005 15:24 PM
Author: earnie

My vision of working with Ir is making very simple forms - just rods or toroids for rings and joint them by mechanical means such as screws or bolts

Metalurgy sounds complicated... design is not ! Bolts and screws (Cartier), mesh (Buccellati), fused wire (Niessing), metal cable (Yurman) from invisible to 5-6diameter... There may well be stranger things under the sun - just look over the 2005 Gold Council campaign.

What shapes or elements (e.g. wire, sheet, foil) are available in iridium ? It seems that almost anything can be translated into jewelry smehow. If it's that rare, it must be precious too...

Just a thought

 

[earnie]

Dear Ana

Well, I agree to your statements. What ever looks nice can be jewellery, what ever the means to manufacture are.

Ir is available in form of sheets, rods and wires. As I stated previously these items cost by weight approximately the metal price of gold. This is more than two times the Iridium metal price which is currently below 180USD/oz or €4400/kg (which is more familiar to me

The interesting thing about Ir in jewellery is its rareness and thus its exclusivity. Iridium is by far the least abundant non radioactive substance in the earth crust which means about 50 times less than gold or platinum. Its share of the total amount of atoms is less than 10-6 parts per million or less than one cm³ in a cube of 100m edge length. As a by product of pgm mining its price is already payed by platinum buyers. If mined for its own sake, the price would be in astronomical regions.

To my mind we should start with a project at different parts in the world just to explore the market chance. I do this conversation for a colleage of mine who is goldsmith. she has to face a harsh competition with her small business and if she specializes it could help her. On the other hand, such an attempt should be coordinated to acquire more and faster experience.

My part in that project could be to get the material cause I have an industrial contact to potential providers. And there are very few serios ones.

Regards

Earnie

 

[valeria101]

Date: 1/25/2005 1:30:49 PM
Author: earnie

The interesting thing about Ir in jewellery is its rareness and thus its exclusivity.

To my mind we should start with a project at different parts in the world just to explore the market chance.

Any ideas about how this "market exploration" could unfold ?

I did this sort of thing, but not for jewelry...

 

[earnie]

Dear Ana

It could start simply by doing.

At first, everybody who is interested and runs a jewellery manufacture, particularly those who run a one man or woman business, could specify a piece of metal which he (or she) will need for the item he or she has in mind.

Next step is to organize the metal pieces and to explore potential sources. To my mind that will work better than to announce something which is actually not there.

The resonance on the produced and exhibited item will be discussed in this thread. Thus we exchange the experience we make when working with the metal.

In the longer run an Iridium jewellers league (IRJL) or so could be established and who knows what happens next.

Regards

Earnie

 

[valeria101]

Date: 1/27/2005 10:17:41 AM
Author: earnie

It could start simply by doing.

At first, everybody who is interested and runs a jewellery manufacture, particularly those who run a one man or woman business, could specify a piece of metal which he (or she) will need for the item he or she has in mind.

Next step is to organize the metal pieces and to explore potential sources. To my mind that will work better than to announce something which is actually not there.

So the jewelers will take in the risk of trial-and-error design ? Why not, if this sounds reasonable.

Blue pearls are presented in a similar fashion (a roster of designers adding up creations to a catalog of jewelry: see this page). The sponsorship effort seems rather substantial for this kind of enterprise.

How does this idea sound ? The designs wouldn't have to be totally virtual - as long as some are there and some the makers submit as technically feasible.

 

[earnie]

Dear Ana

"This idea" is perhaps "The idea". Not bad, Ana. It now comes to a stage where I should discuss the nearest steps with my colleague.

Regards

Earnie

 

[valeria101]

Date: 1/31/2005 1:57:51 PM
Author: earnie
It now comes to a stage where I should discuss the nearest steps with my colleague.

Fingers crossed here !

 

[PhillipSchmidt]

This is very interesting Earnie and Ana

 

[earnie]

Dear all

I think, we will start the experiment as follows:

On Feb. 14th we will have a meeting with an expert of Johnsson&Matthey in our company. It was originally intended to discuss how to handle Ir as a catalyst in hydrogen generators. Now our company has more or less stopped the research. So this meeting will be an opportunity to discuss questions related to our issue.

Hereby you all are invited to post questions regarding manufacturing methods, handling, acquisition and applications. I will post the results after the meeting here. For more detailled problems don´t hesitate to write me a mail.

Regards

Earnie

 

[PhillipSchmidt]

I will ask what I can as this proposition sounds interesting...

If soldering is inadvisable due to softening, are there hardened irridium screws available, if so at what %? What is the chioce of the best alternative (platinum group?)?

Can these groups of metal be hardened by a typical bench worker?

With carefull annealing can I achieve what I want - rounded shanks, drawn wire for settings etc?

Thanks Earnie for all your help thus far. I would be happy to collaborate with you on this project.

Phillip

 

[valeria101]

Well... Titanium jewelry is not done the usual way, and shapes had to follow technical restrictions. I was wondering about two things:

#1. Can they produce (small) pieces to precise specifications ?
Someone must be able to produce profiles used for surgical implants and medical harware.
...those are far more detailed than most jewelry, and not a volume product. There must be some standard process to customize such pieces.

#2. What could be done of Ir that would not be feasible of platinum ? (actually, this would be an open question for everyone around here - a matter of product differentiation, I would think).

 

[PhillipSchmidt]

If there is a specific purpose for Irridium in medicine then we can jump on the band wagon like we usually do.

Example: Dental supplies are always far ahead of jewellery supplies. They can afford it, so we wait for them to come out with a new neumatic drill with with all the standard tungston carbide bits etc.

Never bought a platinum screw myself...

It is a good question, though more for the doctors and dentists here then the smiths.

 

[earnie]

Dear all

Thanks for your encouranging replies.

If you allow me to summarize, we could identify the following topics for monday:

->Soldering: if feasible, up to which temperatures and which soldering metals are to be used.
->Machine elements: screws availability, their alloys and potential sources.
->Pre fabricated parts: Complexity, accuracy, means to shape, production methods
->Metallurgy: hardening and re-annealing procedures of Ir and Ir alloys.

Ana, the answer to your first question is for sure yes. They could do anything you want them to do. I presume that sometimes the ratio between cost and material value is too bad for jewelry - not knowing what is considered a reasonable ratio.

Your second question is quite complex. Ir is the most corrosion resistant among the PGM. Therefore it is used for crucibles for crystal growth such as YAG, ruby and KPT for lasers and 3-5-semiconductors for all colours of light emitting diodes and all kinds of high frequency transistors. Further it is the only metal which withstands at room temperature pure fluorine and chlorine gas and bromine liquids, which are among their acids the most corrosive substances known on earth. That is why we chose Ir for our anodes. So jewellery made of Ir cannot be dissolved in any acquaeous acid including acqua regia.

In jewelry this could lead to a nimbus of undestroyability like the mystic material of THE ring in lord of the rings. For common jewelry "users" there will be no considerable difference between white gold, Pt and Ir except the warm silvery luster, far brighter than Pt and more white than white gold. It never tarnishes unless not exposed to very hot air in red heat condition.

Regards

Earnie

 

[PhillipSchmidt]

Hi Earnie and Ana,

The fabrication should be easy as far as shaping by hand goes.

I am still midefull about what you said about it''s annealed softness so I am tending towards its being screwed rather then soldered.

To fashion it - it would need a lot of specialized work to have the piece at the right hardness at the right time. This, for me would be a matter of trial and error. It wouldn''t take long to learn, perhaps only one piece, but I suspect the manufacture cant be done fast. If there would be tube available then fabricating (or screwing) need not be an issue as far as wedding rings go. Otherwise some cleaver designing would be neccessary to allow for screws.

If needs be, a thread could be indented onto an irridium wire to be used as a screw. There would not be a screw head so the job here must be precise and unlikely to want to move throught the jewels life.

Sounds like a lot of work and definately an irridium piece would not be cheap. How worthwile it is depends fully on how well the metal perform under wear, how good a polish it takes, the colour and how it is marketed.

Looks good so far,

Phillip