The Role of CAD/CAM in the Modern Jewellery Business

Peter Kitson

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     Copyright © L.C. Molinari, M.C. Megazzini, E. Bemporad



Introduction

Today I will explain how production techniques developed in fields quite different from goldsmithing can be adapted perfectly to jewellery manufacture. In this presentation, the following topics are discussed:

- what is CAD/CAM
- what opportunities this new technology can offer to jewellery factories
- when use of CAD/CAM can be profitable
- how can CAD/CAM be utilized to the best

At the threshold of the new century, technology can offer substantial support to all the activities of the goldsmith. Particularly in recent years, much research work has been carried out in the field of jewellery production and new sophisticated technology for jewellery manufacturing has been developed. Unhappily, the goldsmith does not always readily accept new technology. To give an example, investment casting was introduced in the late 1940s, but it was not accepted by the industry until the late fifties. Ten years elapsed before it was used in factories.

Consequently, in spite of active research work for end product quality improvement, there are some production steps that seem unaffected by the lapse of time. In particular, there is a step in the production process where, even today, the goldsmith is still unwilling to accept new technology. This step is design or, more precisely, the intercommunication between the designer and the goldsmith - that is, between creativity and practical realization. It has always been believed that a compromise between aesthetic and production technology requirements is difficult to reach, but this has not actually been true for a long while, a statement proved by many examples of industrial design, such as Pininfarina design for the automotive industry. These demonstrate how creativity and imagination can perfectly be harmonized with computer calculations.

The instrument enabling this small miracle is named CAD/CAM. These acronyms denote all systems that assist design (CAD = Computer Aided Design) and manufacturing (CAM = Computer Aided Manufacturing) through a computer.