Jewelry assembly

Abstract

A jewelry item includes a support element provided with inner and outer zones, first and second support surfaces having a resilience and facing one another with a taper from the inner to the outer zones. The taper provides a bisector extending along the axis of taper. First and second spaced recesses or protrusions are provided on each of said support surfaces. A collet for holding a stone or other item having first and second collet surfaces complementary to the first and second support surfaces, said collet surfaces having a taper substantially corresponding to the taper of the support surfaces, each of said collet surfaces including first and second spaced protrusions or recesses designed to cooperate and fit together with associated recesses or protrusions of the support surfaces. Said collet being fittable to said support. Each of said protrusions includes a surface extending substantially transverse to said bisector.

Description

[0001]This patent application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. Section 119 from Great Britain Patent Application No. 0818258.6, filed on Oct. 6, 2008, which is now pending and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to a jewelry assembly, to a kit for a jewelry assembly and a method of manufacturing jewelry assemblies.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Jewelry assemblies, such as rings, are commonly formed by casting a collet and a shank separately. The collet and the shank are generally moulded, cast or otherwise formed from different materials. For example, the collet may be moulded from 18 carat white gold while the shank may be made of 18 carat yellow gold. In order to provide a finished assembly, the collet and the shank need to be held in a predetermined relative position and fixed together for example by soldering. In the case of high value jewelry, for instance rings with precious stones, the i...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0019]Advantageously, the protrusions have a length or depth of no more than substantially 1 millimetre. In the preferred embodiment, the protrusions have a length in the range of 0.3 to 0.9 millimetres, more preferably 0.4 to 0.8 or 0.75 millimetres and in one embodiment in the region of 0.65 millimetres. Only a portion of each protrusion and associated recess need have a surface extending substantially perpendicularly to the bisector. It has been found that having the correct dimensions for the protrusions or pins can minimise the amount of elastic deformation required of the shank and yet provide a reliable and firm coupling of the collet to the shank, in which the positioning and orientation of the collet to the shank is precise and fixed, suitable for a high quality jewelry item.

[0034]In the preferred embodiments, it will be appreciated, the protrusions fit entirely within their associated recesses, such that they are invisible from the outside of the item of jewelry. This avoids the need to remove any parts of the protrusions, increasing manufacturing yield.

Problems solved by technology

In the case of high value jewelry, for instance rings with precious stones, the item of jewelry is often delicate and formed of small parts.

However, owing to the shape of the collet, it is difficult to hold the components in the correct position for the soldering process.

In order to perform this procedure, considerable jeweller time and skill is required to place and hold the collet in the correct orientation with respect to the shank.

If the collet is designed to accept a diamond or other precious stone to make a high quality and expensive item of jewelry, the slightest imperfection can result in rejection of the entire item of jewelry.

Even so, given the small nature of the components of the ring (or other item of jewelry) this is a difficult task.

In addition to the difficulties in manufacturing the ring or other item of jewelry, there is significant wastage in precious material (typically gold or platinum), in particular when the support bar is removed.

Although some of the material of the support bar can be recovered, much is lost during filing of this to an aesthetically acceptable condition.

The wastage in terms of materials and time caused by these problems inevitably also increases the cost of production.

Problems also occur at the casting stage.

This occurs because the mould is not sealed at the point at which it opens into the sprue and the edge of the moulded article is therefore often poorly defined.

Such arrangements, while having their uses, are not suitable for precious jewelry.

A precious ring generally requires a precise and delicate setting which will last indefinitely and for which bulky mechanical coupling elements of the types envisaged and required by such known modular assemblies are not appropriate or acceptable.

The skilled person will appreciate that a ring which must be prized open to release a fitting will loosen every time it is opened, leading to weakening of the fitting and of the assembly itself.

Furthermore, the nature of the fitting requires it to be of a certain minimum size which precludes the use with delicate ring structures of the type which are common in precious rings and other jewelry.

For these reasons such designs are not considered appropriate for precious jewelry.

Such a design is not suitable for replacement of the fitting and will suffer from weakening of the ring body even upon first assembly in light of the need to open the ring body significantly to accommodate the rotatable fitting and its pins.

Such a ring is not suitable for high value jewelry.

Moreover, due to manufacturing tolerances, fittings which are too small will provide an unreliable fit, with the result that this also limits the minimum size of these fittings.

It is to be noted that arrangements which provide a fixing below the collet cause the collet to sit proud of the shank with resultant loss of delicacy of the item of jewelry.

It is also to be noted that arrangements which provide a narrow fitting element, such as a support bridge, can be difficult to manufacture, in particular to be cast as a result of the thermodynamics of the casting process.

It is considered that many of the known devices are not suitable for high value rings which carry precious gemstones.

In addition, for rings in which the collet is interchangeable, the features necessary to enable the interchangeability generally impose significant limitations on the possible designs that can be used and are on the whole unsuitable for jewelry items of delicate or sophisticated design.

Furthermore, interchangeability in some devices requires distorting parts of the ring which can lead to permanent deformation and weakening of the ring.

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