Cooksongold launches platinum metal powder for the jewellery industry
March 16, 2016
Cooksongold, Birmingham, UK, has announced it has added platinum to its range of metal powders suitable for the Additive Manufacturing of jewellery. By combining the new 950Pt/Ru (platinum) metal powder with the company’s established Direct Precious Metal Additive Manufacturing system, the Precious M 080, Cooksongold has enabled AM technology to become a viable commercial opportunity for the platinum jewellery industry for the first time.
The Precious M 080 is equipped with a 100-watt fibre
laser and a powder management process developed
for the jewellery and watchmaking industries
Launched in collaboration with the Platinum Guild International (PGI), an organisation funded by leading South African platinum producers and refiners, Cooksongold’s Pt/Ru alloy has been specifically developed for Additive Manufacturing. This ensures that once the designs have been printed in the Precious M 080 they can be post processed, milled and polished to the high standards required without any of the common problems associated with other Pt alloys.
David Fletcher, Business Development Manager at Cooksongold, stated “This is one of the most revolutionary developments for the 3D printing technology. Helping to eliminate the common problems associated with casting platinum, it will become vital for bespoke and low volume platinum jewellery production.”
The 950 Pt/Ru powder will be added to Cooksongold’s existing portfolio, which consists of 18k 3N yellow gold, 18k white gold, 18k 5N red gold and Brilliante 925 silver. Further new powders, such as base metals and other carat gold alloys, are currently being developed and scheduled for release during 2016.
Cooksongold’s advanced metal powders have been optimised to work with the Precious M 080 system from EOS, which in turn has been developed with two key criteria in mind: accountability of materials and quick changeover times between jobs and materials. The powder range is also suitable for a number of other applications including Metal Injection Moulding (MIM) and press and sinter Powder Metallurgy.
Cooksongold is part of the Heimerle + Meule Group, one of Europe’s largest refiners and processors of precious metals.
