 Sparkling diamonds. Multihued gemstones. Scintillating
jewellery. The choicest of jewels.
India is the preferred source for jewelers the world over from large
chain–stores in the US to exclusive independents in Europe & high end
malls in Dubai & up market retailers in Japan and Hong Kong.
India 's jewellery exports soared by over
75 per cent last year- from US$ 2.05 billion in 2003 to US$ 3.67 billion
in 2004.
Diamonds
India 's massive diamond manufacturing sector, employs nearly
one million people and exported cut and polished diamonds worth US$
11.18 billion in 2004 up from US$ 8.62 billion in 2003.
India 's share of the world's polished diamond market is 60 per cent in
terms of value, 85 per cent in terms of volume and 92 per cent in terms
of pieces.
There is a ready availability of an
entire range of diamonds in virtually every size, quality and cut.
Colors
A spectrum of colored gemstones are also
cut and polished, shaped and carved in India. The Indian colored
gemstone industry , have incorporated the latest polishing machines and
state – of - the art technology. Exports of colored gemstones
witnessed a growth of 8.10 per cent in 2004-05 – to US$ 192.94
million.
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OUR JEWELRY MANUFACTURING
PROCESS (e.g. : rings)
Master Model
The first step in the process of making custom designed jewelry is doing a sketch
(hand or CAD) of the piece to be made. The next step is the carving of the wax model or
mostly, a silver master model.
Mold Making
To produce a jewelry item from master model we need a prototype wax
pattern, one for each. For the prototype we must have a rubber die from which multiple prototype wax can be produced. Rubber Mold making
enables this. The silver master is packed tightly with raw rubber inside a metal frame. After heating and curing the rubber for about one hour, the rubber die for the same model is ready.
Cutting The Mold
Now it is time to cut the rubber and remove the original silver master model. This is not as easy as it may seem, cutting a mold properly takes many years of practice.
Injecting Wax
Now that the original model has been successfully cut out, a cavity is left in the rubber mold which we will inject wax into. Hot wax is forced into the cavity by pressure with a commercial wax injector
Building A Ring Tree
The wax rings are cleaned and attached to a wax sprue making ready for investing and casting. The ring tree is attached to a rubber base.
Metal Flask
A metal flask is placed around the tree making a watertight container to prepare for the next step.
Mixing Investment
A mixture called investment is mixed with water.
Vacuum
The investment must be placed in a vacuum chamber to remove all air bubbles from the solution. Failure to do this step will result in a very rough casting..
Oven
After about one hour of drying , the flask is placed in an oven where it is heated to about 700 degrees C. The wax ring tree is melted away leaving a cavity just like the wax tree. This is where the process gets it's name "Lost Wax Casting".
Casting
After burnout is complete, the flask is placed in the centrifugal casting machine where gold is melted and forced into the cavity in the flask.
Gold Tree
The results are a gold ring tree exactly like the wax tree that we started with.
Cutting
The rings are now cut off the sprue with hydraulic cutters.
Roughing
Each ring is now hammered flat and rounded on a ring stick, then sanded and shaped to prepare for the tumbling process.
Setting
Each setting is drilled and the stones are set.
Polishing
After setting , the ring is now ready for polishing. Polishing is about a 10 step process of several grits of abrasives until a fine finish is accomplished.
Cleaning
The second last process is to thoroughly clean the product in an ultrasonic cleaning machine,
dried and ready for plating.
Plating
Once the jewelry article is ready after cleaning the final process is plating. Plating could be either Rhodium or Gold,
etc
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