Rapid-Jewel: Innovative method of jewellery design and manufacturing.

Rapid-Jewel is a project co-funded by the European Commission in the frame of Brite-Euram III.

Contract No: BRPR-CT98-0762

Start Date: 01-Oct-1998

Duration: 39 months

 

Jewelry is one of the oldest European industrial sectors that remain traditional. Considering sector’s fierce competition and problems of the traditional working procedures which are very time consuming and require highly skilled manpower, the RAPID-JEWEL project was born. The project aimed to introduce an entirely new approach to the traditional jewel design and manufacture by developing a method based on several state-of-the-art technologies, commonly used in different industrial sectors.

 

Project’s idea was to use modern tools to generate 3D models of jewels, to elaborate these models into optimized designing CAD procedures and finally, to manufacture prototypes directly final products. Under the project, a technique for injecting precious metals in mass production moldings and rapid prototyping directly in precious metals, was developed.

The adoption of the proposed method significantly contributed to the improvement of the design quality as well as the reduction of the production cost and time, creating new opportunities for seasonal jewelry and specific markets, such as customers with special enquiries, vast number of pieces offered in hypermarkets and magazines etc.

GeoAnalysi S.A., Greece

IFAM (Fraunhofer-Institut fur Fertigungstechnik und Angewandte Materialforschung), Germany

JMA Bros Inc., Greece

Polyline S.A., Greece

Materialise NV, Belgium