Proudly Presenting Precious Plated 3D Printing from Shapeways - Shapeways Blog
Proudly Presenting Precious Plated 3D Printing from Shapeways
February 6, 2015
Have you been lusting after our Rose Gold, Platinum and other premium alloy offerings? Have you wanted to use them but have been waiting for that special project that makes sense and/or is less cost sensitive? We’re excited to announce our new price-friendly Precious Plated Metal finishes!
Introducing Precious Plated 18k and 14k Gold, 14k Rose Gold and Rhodium Plated!
Products made in Precious Plated Metal are made the same way our Polished Brass is with a few bonus steps. Wax casts of your model are 3D printed, plaster is poured around the wax cast, and then the brass is poured in the cast. The brass cools and takes form before we carefully remove the cast. We then layer it with palladium, increasing strength and durability, before finishing your products with 0.5 microns of the precious alloy of your choice. The electroplating on our new upgraded offering is more durable and we are excited to delight even more designers and shoppers with these materials.
Precious Plated Metal is a great choice for all of your jewelry. The 18k Gold Plated will replace our existing Gold Plated Brass. If you were currently selling this material in your shop, we’ve gone ahead and updated the offering and carried over your markup on Shapeways. Be sure to enable your models in the new Rhodium, Rose & 14k Gold Premium Plated, too- they’re all the same price!
Material Guidelines at a Glance:
- Maximum Bounding Box: 89 x 89 x 100 mm
- Minimum Bounding Box: 2.4 x 2.4 x 0.6 mm
- Minimum supported & unsupported wires & walls: 0.8 mm
- Minimum Embossed Detail: 0.4 mm
- Minimum Engraved Detail: .35 mm
- Minimum Escape Hole Width: 4 mm if just one, 2 mm if 2+ Holes
- Minimum Clearance: .3 mm
- Accuracy: .125 mm
What will you make first with our new Precious Plated Metal?
Here are some tips for designing in polished metals: