Electroforming secrets

It is possible that the latest news about the electroforming technique used by Tous, surprised you and although you are in love with the brand, you are concerned about the quality of your jewelry and you wonder if the pieces that you adored until now, are real jewelry. To solve your doubts we explain what is electroforming and what are its advantages and disadvantages.

What is electroforming?

As you have probably already read, electroforming consists of introducing in a electrolytic bath the base that will be covered with the precious metal from which we want the piece to be made, silver or gold. This central base can be made of wax, another low melting point metal (pewter) or resin.

Generally wax or a metal with a low melting point is used as a base. Once the electrolytic bath is finished, the piece is heated and the base that has served as a support melts, so that the piece is hollow inside. We can say then that all the weight of the piece is made of the precious metal.

However, sometimes, a resin is used with the intention of leaving it inside the piece. This is the case of Tous.

And why is the resin left inside the piece?

This is the million dollar question and what has really worried and even outraged the brand's customers, who would not bother with hollow parts but do not like to think that their parts are filled with plastic.

The answer is simple, to give stability and durability to the piece. The thickness of the precious metal layer that Tous applies to its pieces is 0.25mm in the case of gold and 0.4mm in the case of silver (according to Tous's advertising videos). They are too small thicknesses so that the piece is robust enough without the resin inside, that is, without the resin, the piece would dent easyly.

This is how Tous can create pieces with original designs and with volume but with a low material cost.

What other techniques exist to obtain design pieces? The microfusion.

Currently with the introduction of 3D printing, there are no limits to jewelry design. The jewels designed in 3D are printed in wax for their microfusion by the lost wax process.

The wax pieces are placed in molds that are covered with solid refractory material. Once the refractory material has hardened, the mold is placed in an oven that melts the wax. In this way, a hole remains in the mold that has exactly the shape of the piece that we want to reproduce. Subsequently, the molten precious metal is injected into the mold, which takes the shape of the model. To remove the piece it is necessary to break the mold.

It is necessary to remove the sprues and polish the pieces obtained with this technique to obtain the final shine.

With this method the part obtained is completely solid.

What advantages does electroforming have over microfusion?

Electroforming, in addition to allowing avant-garde designs, allows reducing the thickness of the precious metal layer, as long as the resin is left inside, so it reduces the cost of the materials.

It is also a more efficient process than microfusion for several reasons:

We eliminate the coating molds and the kilning process.

There are no metal losses derived from the casting, nor by the subsequent polishing of the piece etc.

The working time of the jeweler is drastically reduced since the piece leaves the bath practically finished.

What advantages does microfusion have over electroforming?

Avoid breakage: The pieces made with electroforming can break more easily and the real problem comes when trying to fix them since it is very difficult to weld the piece once it has broken because it contains the resin. With the microfusion this does not happen since the piece is solid.

Value of the pieces: The pieces made by microfusion worth their weight in gold (or silver ;-). The same does not happen with the pieces made with electroforming since they contain the resin, they are difficult to value and usually give unpleasant surprises when we want to sell them.

Conclusions

If you are in love with Tous, surely you are for his designs, originality and good taste. Electroforming is one of the tools that Tous uses to achieve those designs that you like so much. On the other hand, Tous uses first law precious metal as certified by specialized laboratories. By the way, the resin inside the piece does not give allergies either.

However, electroforming is not the only way to get good designs. Nowadays 3D printing and microfusion allow to make solid pieces with spectacular and original designs where he pieces are worth 100% of their weight.

Maracolori has opted for microfusion that guarantees consumer satisfaction, without breaks or surprises, in addition to allowing us wonderful designs that we combine with lampworked glass, obtaining unrepeatable and absolutely exclusive jewelry.l,lñ,g