We understand the importance of high quality, polished jewellery in the fashion industry. A high-quality mirror polish finish will surely increase the value of any piece of jewellery. It will contribute to a jeweller’s image & reputation and will give a sense of luxurious experience to his customers.
In this case study, we look at how you can achieve a mirror polish on stainless-steel pendants using the centrifugal disc finishing technology.
Project Background
Client approached ActOn team to develop a cost-effective process to achieve a mirror polish finish on stainless steel jewellery. The finishing process also implied barrelling 300 pieces per batch.
How we achieved the mirror polish on the stainless-steel jewellery
From the start of this project we ruled out vibratory finishing, as our client already did extensive trials using this technology and we also knew we had to offer a faster finishing process. Hence we carried out finishing trials in the ActOn Centrifugal Disc Finishing machine.
The Centrifugal Disc Machine is perfect for processing small and delicate components, such as these jewellery pieces, the probability of damaging these parts being very low. Moreover, the main advantages of Centrifugal Disc machines included:
- the reduced processing times for most applications
- being a faster alternative to the vibratory finishing machines
- and it is a good value for money option as it implies a reduced capital investment.
Further to our trials we achieved the final finish in a 2-stage process:
- To achieve a smooth surface free from burrs we finished the jewellery using our DTB series (perfect for heavy duty applications such as burnishing) and a mix of a medium abrasive plastic media, a polishing compound and water.
- For the mirror polished effect the pendants were in high density polishing media, using LQ9 compound, a specially formulated brightening and polishing compound. This compound is one of our best-selling products for polishing processes and is used by jewellers, goldsmiths and mid-sized manufacturers in the fashion industry.
The result
- Our finishing process enabled our customer to process 300 parts in approx. 3 hours. This has improved considerably the time our client was spending on polishing the pendants.
- The process delivered a superior mirror polished finish while the dimensional integrity of the parts was maintained.
- This finishing process can be replicated on other pieces of jewellery made by the client.
If you would like to find out more information regarding our finishing expertise for the fashion industry please check www.acton-finishing.co.uk, or contact our technical team at [email protected] .