DM Flower Pendant | Tiana Gould's Portfolio

Flower Pendant

One project of my co-op at Desktop Metal was to design a flower pendant to help get interest from customers who work with jewelry or other fields involving small details and designs that would be printable on the Desktop Metal printers. For more information on the Desktop Metal systems I worked with, click here.

Main Goal:

Create a part that can be used as a test plate for both the BMD and Binder Jetting systems to show the level of detail

Secondary Goal:

Create some sort of moving assembly of a component that would normally have to be made as separate pieces and assembled later, but can be printed in place using the two systems.

Idea:

Create a pendant with fine details to attract the jewelry industry. In jewelry, most components must be connected with a ring that has a single split. This split is spread apart to add components and then closed to secure them in place. Often these pieces get pulled apart leaving the gap open and putting the pieces at risk of falling out. If these small pieces could be printed in place in an assembly, they would not need the gap. By printing them solid in metal, we can eliminate the risk of the clasp opening and pieces falling off.

Typical Jewelry Clasps with Opening

Design:

Using my knowledge of SolidWorks, I created a flower pendant made of angled petals. I then layered two of these on top of each other and added geometric designs to show the capability of the printer to print small details and thin walled features. The individual petals were modeled using the loft feature from a rectangle to an oblong oval to a point centered at different heights to create the more rounded shape of a natural petal. The design consisted of extruded half spheres, extruded thin walls, and different size and shaped cuts.

360 View of Pendant

Additionally, to complete the secondary goal, I made another version of the pendant which utilized the ability of additive manufacturing to print moving assemblies in place. In this version, I connected the original pendant to another smaller version of the pendant by designing three o-ring connectors. Unlike typical jewelry, these connectors would be printed in place and therefore could be solid without the need for a split in order to attach the pieces. This eliminated the risk of the clasp opening up and allowing the individual pieces to come loose.

What I Learned:

I learned more about the tolerance of our system and what clearance is required between mated assembly components to keep them from melting together in the furnace during the sintering step of the process. I also personally processed the part to print on the Studio System, so I learned even more about slicing parts to 3-D print and how to adjust the supports to allow the part to print without creating trapped supports or supports that would push out against the part and cause potential flaws.