The craft of making finger rings is perhaps as old as any human art form. Although the fundamentals of molding precious metals (copper, silver and gold) into rings has, perhaps, changed very little over the centuries, the sophistication of these technologies has increased dramatically. This paper will examine how modern enginerring and metallurgy have been applied to manufacture the highest quality wrought seamless rings both economically and responsively to current market requirements. Key aspects of this application include 1) vacuum melting and hot working (extrusion) to achieve fully wrought, fine-grain microstructure, 2) near-net-shape processes to maximize precious metal yield, 3) customer accessible CAD integrated with on-the-fly CNC code generation for precision machining, 4) application of "LEAN"principles for one-piece flow, 5) maximized inventory turnover and loss control, and 6) quality systems in accordance with ISO 9001:2008.

Author: Paul W. Nordt