imosh.com
can help you every step of the way in turning your jewelry idea into a
finished piece. Whether you provide the original model yourself or have
our talented model maker produce a model for you. You can be
sure that the resulting castings will meet your needs. We offer Lead-Free
casting alloys. (sterling silver soon)
The
casting process begins by "sinking" the original model into
a rubber disc mold. This mold becomes the
master mold and is used to cast enough copies of the original model
to create a production mold. The
number of cast copies required depends on the size of the piece and
amount of space needed between the
pieces so that they will then cast properly during production. The size
of the cast pieces also dictate how
thick the production mold will be and the diameter of the mold. imosh.com
is capable of making production
molds as large as 18" in diameter with a thickness of up to 3".
Once
all of the pieces are positioned in the production mold, the mold is
vulcanized using heat and pressure. This process forces the mold rubber
into every void, capturing all of the detail and surface texture of
your
original model. Vulcanization also "cures" the rubber, making
it firmer and more durable, capable of
producing many, many identical copies of your original model.
Once
the production mold has been completed, it is placed into the centrifugal
casting machine. The casting machine is turned on, spinning the mold
at a high rate of speed. Molten metal is then poured into the center
of the mold and centrifugal force pushes the metal into the cavities
inside the mold. Once the mold cools, it is removed from the casting
machine and the two halves of the mold are pulled apart, exposing the
cast pieces. The cast pieces are then separated from one another and
finished according to the needs of the customer.
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