The Shop of Tomorrow

The tools and technologies that may be coming soon to a workshop near you

By Shawna Kulpa

(Originally published January 2016.)

Editor’s Note: With the start of the New Year upon us, we thought it might be interesting to do a little forward thinking, specifically looking ahead to the technology of the future and how jewelry might be made in 10 years. We spoke with numerous experts in such fields as computer-aided design and manufacturing, robotics, and just innovation in general to get a sense of what jewelers could expect to see. Like most industries, technology in the jewelry industry will likely get better, faster, and cheaper, but it could also be headed in some interesting directions.

In addition, we spoke with several jewelry designers about the specific tools and technologies they’d like to see developed in the next 10 years. Toolmakers, take note and get crackin’!

Design

Even luddites have to admit that computer-aided design (CAD) has a strong foothold in the industry, one that is likely going to continue to grow over the coming years.

“CAD has already changed the industry significantly, and in a way that’s not going to go backward,” says Bill Dahl, vice president of marketing and communications for Solidscape Inc. in Merrimack, New Hampshire. “It’s going to continue to accelerate, especially with the demand for more and more personalization, which is increasingly difficult to do with traditional methods and still be cost-effective. Customization is very easy to do with CAD and 3-D printing.”

However, Dahl notes that CAD software can be pretty expensive and might not be an affordable option for many small businesses. He expects that like all technologies, the price of software will eventually become more affordable as more and more companies start using the internet-based network of remote servers known as the “cloud.”

“In all likelihood, a lot of CAD packages will be in the cloud,” says Dahl. “I think companies are going to move toward a subscription-based service, like Adobe has done with its programs. I think you can expect to see the same progression in jewelry.”

Kevin Abernathy, chief innovation officer of BISVentures in Burnsville, Minnesota, also envisions a future where CAD software will be accessed in the cloud. “In the mechanical CAD space, we’re already seeing design software manufacturers creating CAD programs that run in the cloud,” he says. “Instead of buying expensive equipment and CAD systems, you have access to the cloud.” CAD users would pay a subscription fee to access the software rather than having to invest thousands of dollars in one version of a software system.

In addition to saving users money, accessing CAD through the cloud will also put everyone on the same level. “It will level the playing field because software won’t be revision dependent,” says Abernathy. “If you’re using a subscription service, you’re always using the latest version.”

Once it’s accessible through the cloud, CAD software may also be available for short-term rental. “I think we’ll see rent-on-demand, where you can rent a program for a day to do what you want without having to own the package,” says Abernathy. “There will be a transition period—no one’s going to suddenly drop their software. But for most companies, the cloud will eventually be more economical.”

In addition to saving users money, it will also save them time. “When you’re designing in the cloud, you’re spreading the work across numerous computers and servers all over the world that allow you to generate operations much faster,” explains Abernathy. “If you cut a hole in something in your design, there are numerous servers making that hole, making it seem instantaneous to you.”

Working with CAD in the cloud will also change the way people design. “As the cloud matures and you get more access to the digital knowledge base in the cloud, this will help people to design and evaluate new products faster,” says Abernathy. “The next generation for jewelry will be in-cloud collaboration. Companies are already digitizing parts and making them available online. A designer could get a four-prong setting [from the cloud] instead of having to model it herself.

“Cloud computing will allow access to more analytical data for the jeweler,” he continues. “A jeweler may design a product, and it may take a few attempts to cast it right based on a spruing approach that he may use. With cloud computing, a jeweler could analyze how the part fills based on his approach and also allow the cloud to make suggestions or changes to optimize the process. The end result might be a graphical animation that would show how the part might flow or fill most efficiently.”

Steven Adler of A3DM Technologies, a consultancy based in Portland, Oregon, also sees benefits to design moving to the cloud. “Some programs will have ‘Design Intelligence,’ where rules and regulations apply to the creative process,” he explains. “If you wanted to make something, it would keep you from making stupid mistakes. It could also make recommendations of what design options are possible.”

But Abernathy warns that the cloud is not the end-all, be-all for design: “Keep in mind: These are all wonderful tools, but if you are a bad designer, this won’t help you. The best technical integrators know how to work at the bench.”

Cloud Security

With CAD design moving to a cloud-based model, jewelers won’t be tied to their desktop computers. “They’ll be able to do anything they want, from anywhere they want with mobile devices,” says Abernathy. “They can use mobile phones or tablets to work on their design while sitting on the bus. It’ll give jewelers the flexibility to work anytime or anywhere they get the inspiration.”

But with all of these designs floating around in the cloud, there’s the obvious question about online security and how to protect the designs you create or upload to the cloud.

“In order for this to be successful, there will have to be robust security controls and standards in place,” says Abernathy. “File encryption is one possible solution, and it should be noted that all the major producers of the technology are trying to agree on a standardized file format for 3-D printing that would include some of these protection and security controls.” He specifically cites HP in particular as working on the technology, trying to achieve a standardized file format that would include watermark data.

Another solution may be a way to limit how many times a digital file can be printed. “If you have a digital design to print, you can send it to a number of bureau services or casters to be output,” says Adler. “So the ability of controlling the number of times a given file can be printed at a location is being developed. It’s a way of saying, ‘I’m going to send you my file, but you can only print it once.’ That’s one way of addressing licensing of designs and copyright protection.”

Another option could be digitally streaming your files. “You could send the file to a caster, streamed like a pay-per-view event directly to his 3-D printer,” Adler says. “By streaming each layer of the design in sequence, this technology will limit exposure of your sensitive intellectual property.” Since the service bureau never actually has the file, you’ll be protected if someone gets into their system.

From Sketch to Scan

Despite the growing adoption of CAD, hand rendering will still have its place in the future. “There’s something about putting pen to paper,” says Dahl. “A lot of service bureaus will continue to embrace it and will be happy if people still want to design that way. They’ll continue to have paper designs mailed to them, and then it’s their business to interpret that design and create the file. Not everyone will embrace CAD for everything, and so hand rendering will still be there.”

But for anyone wondering if one day they will be able to scan in a hand rendering and have it magically transformed into a 3-D CAD design, the answer is a definite, unequivocal…maybe.

“We’ll always have people that work with hand sketching, creating beautiful renderings, but there will never be an easy way to take that work into CAD without human interpretation—although perhaps I shouldn’t say ‘never,’” Adler says, acknowledging just how difficult it is to write off any type of technological advancement.

Someone else who won’t say never is Abernathy, who can foresee a time when these two fields merge. “As the cloud progresses, we might get to the day where you scan and upload [a sketch] to a service that would create a 3-D model of it. Computers will be creating the shape versus designers having to build it. That system might exist in the future.”

Even if the ability to scan in 2-D designs and transform them into 3-D renderings never comes to pass, advancements with 3-D scanners could potentially one day help jewelers turn their designs into reality.

“Interest in 3-D scanning hasn’t evolved as quickly as 3-D printing,” says Michael Raphael, CEO of Direct Dimensions in Owings Mills, Maryland. “But in the next few years, there will be great, effective solutions for jewelers who want to scan jewelry. Industrial CT scanners (like they use at hospitals) would be the best for scanning jewelry, especially complex pieces like heirloom jewelry. But today they’re very expensive. In the future, there should be cheap CT systems (around the $20,000 range) that jewelers could pop a piece into and get a digital copy, which they could then manipulate, deal with shrinkage issues or add bails, and send it to their printer. There’s a really strong shot of that happening in the next 5 to 10 years.”

In addition to all of these possible advances, some also foresee a consolidation of CAD programs. “Matrix operates primarily using Surfaces, 3Design operates primarily defining as Solids, while Z-brush uses Voxels as a form of construction,” says Adler. “I think we’ll see these and other differing tools being consolidated into one intelligent tool. You won’t have to purchase software types, jumping from one to another. One program will have all of the tools you’ll need, and it will all be in the cloud.”

Design may even expand beyond CAD into virtual reality. “We’re so close to doing this today, but I think virtual sculpting will be the future,” says Raphael. “Jewelers (and customers) will be able to move their hands in the air to design jewelry, using their hands to virtually shape the piece. When they’re happy, they just print the piece in their chosen material. I think this ‘virtual shaping’ will be a replacement for CAD. It’s a natural evolution for CAD.”

Manufacturing

So now that we know how and where tomorrow’s jewelers will be creating their designs, it’s time to look at how those cloud-created designs are going to be transformed into actual pieces of jewelry—starting with the technology that has already made its presence felt.

3-D Printing

When it comes to 3-D printers, the future is well on its way. In a TED talk in March, Joe DeSimone, CEO of Carbon3D in Redwood City, California, discussed how the technology is quickly evolving. During his presentation, he identified a major issue currently holding back 3-D printing from being a mass manufacturing process: 3-D printing takes time.

One of the biggest reasons why printers take so long is because of how they print models. According to Adler, the moderately priced photopolymer printers use a “peel mechanism” that contributes to most of the time spent in the polymerization printing process. A printer first dispenses and defines a layer of material. That layer gets exposed to light and solidifies as a surface for the next layer. “For each layer, [the printer] has to peel away that solid [outer] layer before it can add the next layer,” explains Adler. “Peel, replenish, expose, repeat. But there are new technologies that are eliminating the peel-and-replenish part. And in those cases, it’s much, much faster.”

In his talk, DeSimone demonstrated a 3-D printer that uses Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) to grow parts instead of printing them layer by layer. The result is a process that is 25 to 100 times faster than the current traditional 3-D printer, “which is game changing,” said DeSimone. “In addition, we believe we can go 1,000 times faster.”

Rather than building models layer by layer, this new technology features a pool of UV-curable resin that the building platform is lowered into and uses light and oxygen to build the model as the platform is raised. In addition to speeding up the process of building a model, this new technology eliminates the problem of layer lines.

“Because we’re growing things,” said DeSimone, “we eliminate the layers. You don’t see the surface structure. You have molecularly smooth surfaces. These look like injection-molded parts.”

He concluded his talk by presenting a set of concentric geodesic structures with linkages between each one. “In its context, it’s not manufacturable by traditional manufacturing techniques,” he explained. “It has a symmetry such that you can’t injection mold it. You can’t even manufacture it through milling. This is a job for a 3-D printer, but most printers would take between 3 and 10 hours to fabricate it.”

Using a printer with CLIP technology, DeSimone was able to print the completed item before wrapping up his 10-minute presentation. “CLIP allows anyone to produce commercial-quality parts at game-changing speeds, creating a clear path to 3-D manufacturing,” said DeSimone. “It’s going to transform manufacturing.”

Raphael also notes the continued development and growth of 3-D printing technology, particularly in the area of jewelry manufacturing. “In 5 to 10 years, the machines will be far easier to operate and run,” he says, but is quick to point out that jewelers don’t have to worry about consumers creating their own jewelry at home. “A lot of people thought it was going to happen, but 3-D printing is harder than it looks. And creating the files is a hassle. Maybe in 10 years the technology will be there, but I don’t see it getting that big in only 5 years.”

“As 3-D photopolymer technologies improve, these machines are going to get better and faster,” says Adler. “We’ll see higher resolutions. It’ll be a race to see who can make these machines for less each year. In another five years, I think there will be highly capable machines available for well under $1,000.”

And don’t worry that the lower costs of printers are going to put service providers out of jobs. Not only can they focus on the consumer market, but they’ll also have the capital to invest in the machines with the best resolution.  

“Initially, when jewelers are starting out, they won’t be able to afford professional level 3-D printers,” says Dahl. “As they build up their volume and see what they’re paying for, they may reach the point of seeing the ROI of owning their own machine, but some will elect to continue using service bureaus. And even if they do get their own printer, they’ll still probably need to send their waxes to a service bureau for the next step.”

3-D Precious Metal Printing

As an alternative to printing models in wax or resin, the future may also see greater adoption of machines capable of actually printing in metal.

“Direct Metal Laser Sintering [DMLS] and other forms of 3-D precious metal printing will advance quickly over the next 10 years, with new vendors and powder technologies being brought to market,” says Adler. “Costs for metal powders and equipment are expected to drop as the technology is commercialized more broadly across all markets, including luxury products. What DMLS and other forms of metal-additive manufacturing will provide are opportunities to design outside the constraints of investment casting, and to differentiate luxury brands by unique design concepts. Jewelry manufacturers will also utilize DMLS to create components that will be incorporated with traditional investment castings and stampings to form hybrid products. The potential impact will likely be seen first in platinum products, where investment casting of jewelry is more challenging.”

Despite the advances, not every jeweler or manufacturer will have a machine in their shop in 10 years. “It is doubtful that the economies of scale will allow 3-D precious metal printing to outpace investment casting for luxury products,” says Adler. “DMLS is a technology that provides new and unique capabilities that would be challenging for investment casting—lightweight platinum printing, articulated and interconnected designs in karat gold. Designers who are first to recognize how to exploit the unique design capabilities will certainly have commercial success. But [DMLS] will never be a mainstream panacea.”

Raphael also cites finishing issues with the technology. “Sintered metal pieces are fairly rough,” he says. “When you print these things, the finish is not ideal in most cases, so it’s going to be a trade-off. But as the sintering technology improves, so too should the finish. It would be nice to eliminate the casting step and go directly to printed metal, but I don’t know if that chasm will get crossed in the next 10 years.”

However, in order to become more widespread in the jewelry industry, the price of the machines would need to come down. “Most [jewelers] aren’t willing to spend $250,000 and load up with gold powder and make it work,” says Abernathy. “For jewelry, it’s really more for elaborate designs that you couldn’t cast.”

Raphael also believes that price will continue to be an obstacle. “Those machines are complex and challenging to make, and I don’t see them coming down significantly in price,” he says. “Even in 10 years, the metal machines will still be expensive, you’ll just get a better machine.”

And even if the price of these printers never comes down enough to make them feasible for the average jeweler, it doesn’t mean the technology will be out of reach. In addition to service bureaus offering the technology, designers may be able to reach out to local networks through the cloud. “Instead of people owning printers, there could be operations where printers in your area are linked, making them accessible to others,” says Raphael. “These ‘3-D hubs’ would allow users to go into the network, say ‘I need this print tonight,’ and a neighbor or model maker with the capability offers up their machine. It would be like Uber for 3-D printing.”

This idea of going to the cloud to have your designs manufactured seems appropriate: If the cloud is where jewelry will be designed in the future, why shouldn’t it be manufactured there too?

“Cloud manufacturing allows companies to leverage significant manufacturing capacity on demand with no capital investment,” explains Mitch Free, CEO of CloudDDM and ZYCI CNC Machining in Atlanta. “And best of all, it allows companies to scale up and down on demand while producing at the node closest to themselves or their customer. For jewelers, speed is critical to customer satisfaction, and that is where cloud manufacturing is a godsend.”

“Using the cloud, you will not be limited by your own design or production capability,” says Abernathy. “This is an evolving capability, so who knows how it will develop.”

To learn more, check out:

Smart Jewelry
Robotics
The Tool I Want in the Future

MJSA would like to thank Tina Wojtkielo Snyder for her contributions to this article.