Shrinkage as a problem during gas and laser welding of small components made from golden alloy 585 in jewelry

Abstract

There is a wide accepted opinion that only „hevy industry“ is thrue, because there are the most complex technologies, were jewels after they shape and dimension does not belong to this category. But, production of jewels frequently represents a group of versatile and complex technological methods for making such products, in which the using of noble metals increasing the price of these small components. In industrial scale, the problem of shrinkage during welding usually is not considered as a crucial problem in many constructions, but when the laser welding is done on small components as like in jewelry it becomes an important problem. The problem is arising even at welding of golden components, here will be shown some characteristic problems when for welding is used an 585 (14kt) gold alloy. Such problem simply does not exists in the gas welding, what is a subject of discusion&explanation in this paper. The used material for welding is the same, one of the common known alloy 585, it means that gold contest is 58,5%. Even, if laser welding of chosen gold alloy for making a small product is provided pretty correctly, very frequently may arise the sugging at the surface of the weld - as an aesthetic problem. Such problem is described as a shrinkage.