GB2188225A - Improvements in or relating to jewellery - Google Patents

Abstract

A finger ring of the type comprising a head (18), a shank (17) and shoulders (15, 16) is manufactured by a method comprising the steps of forming the shoulders (15, 16) integrally with the shank (17) by deforming or otherwise working end parts of the shank (17) and subsequently securing the shoulders (15, 16) to location points (19, 21; 20, 22) on the head (18). The combining of different styles of head to predetermined lengths of shank formed with integral shoulders enables many different sizes of ring to be constructed without the need for careful measurement when securing the shank to the head. Furthermore, it is quite common for the metal of the head (18) to be different from the metal of the shank (17), the forming of the shoulders (15, 16) integrally with the shank (17) ensures that the metal finish of the shoulders is the same as the shank. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements in or relating to jewellery and its manufacture Description of Invention The present invention relates to jewellery and the manufacture thereof and is primarily, but not exclusively, concerned with rings to be worn on the fingers, hereafter for the sake of clarity referred to as "finger rings" of the type comprising a head into which may be mounted precious stones or other adornments; a shank which extends around part of the finger; and shoulders interconnecting the shank with the head.

The invention also relates to a method of making such rings.

There are two conventional methods of manufacturing finger rings, a casting method, and a combination of a casting method and fabricating method.

The first method of production comprises casting the ring as a single piece by a conventional casting technique, the shank, shoulders and head of the ring being formed integrally.

In the combination casting and fabricating method, the head and shoulders are formed as an integral member by a casting technique and the shank may be formed by whatever means is desired, the shank is then secured to the shoulders which extend from the head by any suitable method, the most usual being by soldering.

It is preferred to manufacture the shank of a ring out of non-cast material since the strength of the shank is important, if this part of the ring is cast, there may be a weakness in the casting that cannot be readily detected.

There is no significant problem in joining a shank to the shoulders of a head by soldering when both the shank and shoulders are made from the same metals, and indeed there is no great problem in joining different metals, providing they can be soldered by a compatible soldering material.

Problems do arise however where the finish metal of the shank is different from the head. Whereas it is quite usual for the head to be of different metal from the shank, at least a metal of different appearance from the shank, the metal of the shoulders which is formed integrally with the head should have the same appearance as the metal of the shank.

It has been proposed in the past that after securing a shank to the shoulders to coat or otherwise secure metal to the shoulders of the head, the metal so secured having the same appearance as the finished metal of the shank.

Whereas such a method of manufacturing rings is quite satisfactory, the method necessitates fairly intricate and time-consuming work on the ring, all of which leads to an increase in its price which for commercial reasons may be unacceptable.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a new or improved finger ring.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, we provide a finger ring comprising a head, a shank and shoulders, one shoulder being provided at each end of the shank, said shoulders being formed integrally with said shank and each being formed with a surface or surface part adapted to co-operate with and to be secured to a surface or surface part on said head.

Preferably, each of said shoulders comprises a part of the material from which the shank is made and which has been further worked or deformed to produce a section different from the remainder of the shank.

Conveniently, with some designs of ring, said head may be formed in a manner so as to provide two surfaces or surface parts adapted to make contact with and at different positions on each of said shoulders.

Preferably, said head and said shank are made from metals or are finished with metals which are different from one another.

The provision of forming the shoulders integral with the shank obviates the need for subsequent coating of the shoulders with another metal and leads to a ring of enhanced appearance which is comparatively simple to manufacture.

It is a second object of the present invention to provide a new or improved method of manufacture of a finger ring.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, we provide a method of manufacturing a finger ring comprising the steps of forming a shank from a first piece of material, said shank having a shoulder at each end thereof, forming a head from another piece of material and subsequently securing said head to said shoulders.

Preferably, said head is secured to said shoulders by soldering.

Preferably, the metal from which said head and said shank is formed, or the metals in which said head or said shank is coated or otherwise finished, are different from each other.

Preferably, said shank is formed from a strip of material which is pressed, stamped or otherwise worked to form the shoulders at each end thereof.

Preferably, said head is provided with location points whereby said shoulders may be accurately located for securementto said head.

Preferably, said shank and shoulders are deformed into a predetermined curved shape prior to location and securementto said head.

Conveniently, the deformation of said shank and shoulders to said preformed curve is such that the radius of the curve is smaller than is desired in the finished ring so that when the shoulders are located on the head, the head is gripped by the shoulders and shank so that the head is held securely in position whilst securement, for example by soldering, takes place.

The ring and method of construction of ring the subject of this invention has further additional advantages in that the shank and integral shoulders may be made in any desired style, and to predetermined lengths corresponding to predetermined ring sizes, which shank and integral shoulders may then be affixed to any one of a number of different designs of head.

The provision of different sizes and shapes of shank and integral shoulders, together with a variety of different heads enables a large range of different styles of ring to be simply manufactured from a limited number of parts and, because of the preforming of the shank/shoulder part and the location points on said head, each ring can be accurately made with a minimum of skilled labour to the correct shape and dimension.

The shank is preferably made from a piece of drawn material which may be silver and which is preferably plated in a metal such as platinum or gold and conveniently the shank may be made of a silver or other metal and encased in a more precious metal, such encasing being in accordance with the method as described in British Patent No.

2,042,943B.

The section of material from which the shank is made may then be cut to a predetermined length depending on the size of ring required and the head or heads to which it may be affixed and the ends of said section of material may then be deformed by a pressing operation to form shoulders for securementto a head.

The shank/shoulders are then deformed into a curve of a radius slightly smaller than that which will be present in the finished ring to enable the placing of a head between the shoulders and, since the placing of the head between the shoulders will require some resilient deformation of the shank/ shoulders, the head will then be gripped in its correct position by locating points on the head with the shoulders.

The shoulders may then be secured together by soldering, for example, and because of the positive gripping of the head by the shoulders the method of manufacture of the present invention lends itself readily to the use of paste solder which is placed in position at the point or points of contact between the head and the shoulder. The complete ring may then be heated to a temperature so that the paste solder flows and bonds with the metals of the head and shoulders.

The invention will now be described in more detail by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: FIGURE 1 is an illustration of a section of metal from which the shank and shoulders are made; FIGURE 2 illustrates the shank and shoulders of a ring; FIGURE 3 is an exploded view of the complete ring before securement of the head to the remainder ofthe ring; FIGURE 4 is a view of the completed ring.

Referring to Figure 1, a strip of material generally indicated at 10 is shown, the material may for example be of D-section or any other desired shape, the section preferably being that which will form the section of at least the majority of the shank of the ring.

The part 10 may comprise a core 11 of one metal, for example silver, and may be coated or surrounded with a second metal 12 which could, for example be gold.

Referring now in addition to Figure 2, the ends 13 and 14 of the piece of material 10 are deformed, for example by a pressing operation, to form shoulders 15 and 16. The shoulders will as shown be generally speaking broader than the shank and will usually be thinner iending themselves readily for securement to a head of the ring.

In a method of manufacture according to the invention, the shank 17 and shoulders 15, 16 are then deformed into a curved shape, as shown in Figure 3. The radius of the curve being a little smaller than the internal diameter of the finished ring.

The head 18 of the ring may be of any desired form and is provided with location means which, in the example shown, comprises a pair of upper locating means 19 and 20, one each side of the head 18, and lower locating means 21 and 22.

The shank 17, together with the integral shoulders 13 and 14, is then resiliently deformed in a manner to increase the radius of the curve and the shoulders 13 and 14 are accurately located on the location points 19 and 21 and 20 and 22 respectively and because of the resilient deformation of the shank 17 and shoulders 15 and 16, the head 18 will be gripped thereby.

The head 18 may then be secured to the shoulders 15 and 16 by soldering and if desired prior to the head 18 being located in position on the shoulders 15 and 16, soldering paste may have been put either on the location points 19, 20, 21 and 22 on the head and/or on the shoulders 15 and 16 so that when the head 18 is located in its proper position, as shown in Figure 4, the ring may be heated to cause the solder paste to melt and bond the two parts together.

The provision of the space locating points 19 and 21 on one side and 20 and 22 on the other side enables the head 18 to be secured to the shoulders 15 and 16 and hence shank 17 of the ring at four different points which lends itself to a very strong construction and, because the points of securement are located internally, the finished appearance of the ring is aesthetically pleasing.

It will be appreciated that shanks may be made from any desired cross-section of material and shoulders may be formed thereon of any desired shape and size, the shank 17/shoulder 15, 16 part may be made to a certain predetermined length which may be calculated when secured to different heads will produce a ring of a predetermined size.

Thus for example, a shank and shoulder part of one predetermined length may be secured to a first head to produce one size of ring and may be secured alternatively to a different head and it will be known that such combination will produce a ring of a different size.

The method of construction of the ring therefore enables, by the provision of a plurality of different sizes of shank/shoulder parts and a plurality of different heads to the manufacture of many different styles of ring by combining different heads with different shanks, and the ability to produce, very accurately, rings of the desired size.

Since the shoulders are formed integrally with and from exactly the same material as the shank, the upper side portion of the ring, i.e. the shoulder, is of exactly the same finish as the shank. Whereas in previously known constructions where such shoulders were formed integrally with the head may have necessitated a further coating operation which may have been costly both in time of manufacture and of the coating materials themselves.

The features disclosed in the foregoing description, or the accompanying drawings, expressed in their specific forms or in terms of a means for performing the disclosed function, or a method or process for attaining the disclosed results, or a class or group of substances or compositions, as appropriate, may, separately or in any combination of such features, be utilised for realising the invention in diverse forms thereof.

Claims (17)

1. Afinger ring comprising a head, a shank and shoulders, one shoulder being provided at each end of the shank, said shoulders being formed integrally with said shank and each being formed with a surface or surface part adapted to co-operate with and to be secured to a surface or surface part on said head.

2. A finger ring according to Claim 1 wherein each of said shoulders comprises a part of the material from which the shank is made, which part has been worked or deformed to produce a section different from the remainder of the shank.

3. A finger ring according to Claim 1 or Claim 2 wherein said head is formed in a manner so as to provide two surfaces or surface parts adapted to make contact with and at different positions on each of said shoulders.

4. A finger ring according to any one of the preceding claims wherein said head and said shank are made from metals or are finished with metals that are different from one another.

5. A finger ring according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the shank is made from a piece of drawn material which is encased in a precious metal.

6. A method of manufacturing a finger ring comprising the steps of forming a shank from a first piece of material, said shank having a shoulder at each end thereof, forming a head from another piece of material and subsequently securing said head to said shoulders.

7. A method of manufacturing a finger ring according to Claim 6 wherein said head is secured to said shoulders by soldering.

8. A method of manufacturing a finger ring according to Claim 6 or Claim 7 wherein the metal from which said head and shank is formed, or the metals in which said head or said shank is coated or otherwise finished, are different from each other.

9. A method of manufacturing a finger ring according to any one of Claims 6 to 8 wherein said shank is formed from a strip of material which is pressed, stamped or otherwise worked to form the shoulders at each end thereof.

10. A method of manufacturing a finger ring according to any one of Claims 6 to 9 wherein said head is provided with location points whereby said shoulders may be accurately located for securement to said head.

11. A method of manufacturing a finger ring according to any one of Claims 6 to 10 wherein said shank and said shoulders are formed into a predetermined curved shape prior to location and securementto said head.

12. A method of manufacturing a finger ring according to Claim 11 wherein the formation of said shank and shoulders to said preformed curve is such that the radius of the curve is smaller than is desired in the finished ring so that when the shoulders are located on the head, the head is gripped by the shoulders and shank so that the head is held securely in position whilst securement is effected.

13. A method of manufacturing a finger ring wherein the shank is made from a piece of drawn metal which is encased in accordance with the method as described in British patent specification 2,042,943B.

14. A finger ring substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.

15. A method of manufacturing a finger ring substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.

16. A finger including any novel feature or novel combination of features disclosed herein and/or shown in the accompanying drawings.

17. A method of manufacturing a finger ring including any novel step or novel combination of steps disclosed herein and/or shown in the accompanying drawings.