Precious metal tubing consisting of silver, gold and platinum alloys is used extensively by jewelry fabricators to make rings and bracelets. Also, there are some emerging industrial technologies that require large-size silver tubing. Various manufacturing techniques are available to produce tubing. Given the large scope of sizes and variety of precious metals, the tubing manufacturer must select the most appropriate process for a particular operation. This paper covers the processes of deep-drawing, roll forming, manual spinning, power spinning, extrusion, tube reducing, drawing and swaging. Examples of fabrication of very large-size silver tubing and platinum ring-size tubing are discussed.

Author: Dr. Aldo M. Reti