JP2009297207A - Method for manufacturing jewel or semi-precious stone - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for manufacturing a jewel or a semi-precious stone for providing a stone of a high carat weight while minimizing the wear of the material by using a small-size crystal. <P>SOLUTION: This method for manufacturing the jewel or the semi-precious stone consists of the following steps for: cutting and polishing a raw crystal to provide a polyhedron of the cut crystal 2; sticking at least four polyhedrons of the cut crystals 2 together to provide a large polyhedron; and cutting the stuck polyhedron of crystal to provide a finished jewel or semi-precious stone 6. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

  The present invention relates to a method for producing gemstones or semi-precious stones.

  As is well known, gems such as diamond, emerald, ruby and sapphire, or even semi-precious stones such as beryl, quartz, aquamarine, etc. are produced by cutting the raw crystal. There are various styles of cutting, such as faceted cuts (brilliant cuts, emerald cuts, princess cuts, etc.), cabochons, and mixes.

  FIG. 1 shows a jewel 100 obtained by cutting a raw crystal. The jewel 100 includes a lower layer portion 101 called a pavilion, a substantially middle layer portion 102 called a girdle, and an upper layer portion 103 called a crown whose shape varies depending on the type of cut.

  Stone value is indicated by carats or points. A carat weighs 1/5 gram or 100 points. Naturally, the size of a stone is proportional to the value of that stone.

  For this reason, small raw crystals (about 5-10 points) have a low commercial value. In order to cut appropriately to become a finished jewel, there is a range of 20% to 40% depending on the type of cut, but it reduces the weight of the jewel.

  According to the prior art, in order to increase the carat weight of a stone, it is known to combine two or three crystals, defined in gemology as doublets and triplets as shown in FIG. It has been. As shown in FIG. 2, the three raw crystals A, B, and C are individually cut to form a pavilion, girdle, and crown, respectively. Crystals A, B, and C are joined by an adhesive such as an epoxy adhesive.

  However, the above method has drawbacks in terms of stone value. In fact, it is necessary to increase the thickness of the adhesive in order to ensure sufficient strength for bonding. As a result, the bonding wall in the crystal becomes translucent, deteriorating the brightness effect of the stone. In addition, over time, the epoxy tends to make the crystal opaque.

  Furthermore, only certain forms of raw crystals, ie low and wide crystals, can be used in this way, and in any case, cutting the crystals wastes a lot of valuable material.

  FR728 222 discloses a method of making a gemstone by bonding one of two parallelepiped crystals onto another crystal and finishing the stone.

  US 3,808,836 discloses a double gem with a relatively hard crystal crown and a lower crystal pavilion.

  The object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing gemstones or semi-precious stones that can use small crystals to obtain high carat weight stones with minimal material wear and overcome the disadvantages of the prior art There is to do.

  Another object of the present invention is to produce gemstones or semi-precious stones that have a high carat weight and are cheaper than the same kind of stones of the same carat weight.

  Furthermore, another object of the present invention is to produce non-naturally occurring gems or quasi-precious stones, such as one stone with a different color.

  These objects are achieved according to the invention having the features of independent claim 1.

  Advantageous embodiments of the invention are evident from the dependent claims.

The method for producing gems and semi-precious stones consists of the following steps:
Cutting the raw crystal and polishing to obtain a cut crystal polyhedron;
Bonding at least four cut crystal polyhedrons to obtain a larger polyhedron;
Cutting the bonded crystal polyhedron to obtain a finished gem or semi-precious stone.

  The advantage of the method according to the invention is that it has a visual effect similar to that of stones obtained from a single crystal and is much cheaper, with the possibility of producing gems and quasi-precious stones that do not exist in nature. It is obvious that medium or large gems or semi-precious stones can be obtained.

  Further features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description. In the following detailed description, reference will be made to non-limiting embodiments that are fully illustrated and those shown in the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a side view of a faceted gemstone according to the prior art.

  FIG. 2 is a side exploded view of an embodiment of a gemstone obtained by bonding (triplet) three crystals according to the prior art.

  FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a small raw crystal and a crystal cut into a cube according to the method of the present invention.

  FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a large cube obtained by assembling the cut crystal shown in FIG.

  FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a gemstone obtained by the method according to the present invention.

  6 is an axial cross-sectional view of the jewel described in FIG.

  According to FIG. 3, the starting point is an unshaped raw crystal 1. It is understood that the small green crystal 1 is preferably a 5-10 point carat weight crystal, for example, and that a higher carat weight crystal may be used in the method according to the invention. The raw crystal 2 is cut and polished by a gemstone and semi-precious stone cutting device and polishing device to form a polyhedron 2 with a flat surface 3 as is known per se. In order to minimize waste of material, the polyhedron 2 is preferably a column, and the column 2 is preferably a cube, a parallelepiped or a pyramid.

  The cut crystals 2 are bonded together to obtain a substantially shaped column 4. The column 4 is preferably a cube or a parallelepiped.

  At least four cut crystals 2 are assembled, and a pillar 4 is obtained.

  In the example in the figure, a cube 4 composed of 27 cube-cut crystals 2 is shown. In this case, if the carat weight of crystal 2 is about 8-10 points each, cube 4 (which is cut again in sequence) will reach a carat weight of about 240 points, ie 2.4 carats.

  In order to bond the cut crystals 2 to each other, a UV transparent adhesive is used. The adhesive is preferably a UV-A adhesive, and is a liquid or fluid adhesive that is cured (polymerized) by irradiation with ultraviolet UV-A. The adhesive is produced using a special lamp or oven that emits radiation within a UV-A ultraviolet layer with a wavelength between 320 nm and 400 nm. The UV adhesive is preferably a two-component transparent acrylic adhesive.

  This type of UV-A adhesive can bond different types of gemstones or quasi-precious stones such as corundum, ruby, quartz, beryl and diamond together. In addition, the adhesive thickness is minimized to about a few microns to ensure optimum bond strength while at the same time minimizing the opacity and diffraction effects of the adhesive.

  At this stage, the pillar 4 is cut by traditional methods as if it were a single raw crystal, resulting in a finished jewel 6 (Figs. 5 and 6) consisting of a pavilion 61, girdle 62 and crown 63. It is done. As shown in FIG. 6, the finally obtained jewel 6 is composed of a plurality of cubes 2 of crystals bonded to each other. Most of the cube (the cube highlighted in bold) is not cut, minimizing material waste.

  Furthermore, UV-A adhesives are completely transparent and do not become opaque over time. Therefore, the visual effect of the jewel 6 obtained by the method according to the present invention is essentially the same as the visual effect of the jewel obtained by cutting one crystal.

  Various changes and modifications may be made to the details of the embodiments of the present invention by those skilled in the art within the scope of the invention described in the appended claims.

FIG. 1 is a side view of a faceted gemstone according to the prior art. FIG. 2 is a side exploded view of an embodiment of a gemstone obtained by bonding (triplet) three crystals according to the prior art. FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a small raw crystal and a crystal cut into a cube according to the method of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a large cube obtained by assembling the cut crystal shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a gemstone obtained by the method according to the present invention. 6 is an axial cross-sectional view of the jewel described in FIG.

Claims (20)

Cutting the raw crystal (1) and polishing to obtain a polyhedron (2) of the cut crystal;
Adhering the cut crystal polyhedrons (2) together; and
Cutting the bonded crystal polyhedron (4) to obtain a finished gem or quasi-precious stone (6) consisting of a pavilion (61) and a crown (63), comprising:
At least four polyhedrons (2) of the cut crystal are bonded to each other, and at least two polyhedrons (2) are bonded side by side in the polyhedron, and at least one of the pavilion (61) or the crown (63) is attached. A process for producing gems and quasi-precious stones, characterized in that it obtains a larger polyhedron (4) to form.   The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the bonding step comprises using a UV adhesive and curing or polymerizing the adhesive by UV irradiation.   The method according to claim 2, characterized in that the bonding step comprises using a UV-A adhesive.   4. A method according to any one of claims 2 or 3, characterized in that the UV adhesive is transparent.   5. The layer according to claim 2, wherein a layer of UV adhesive with a thickness of several microns is used for the surface (3) in the polyhedron of the cut crystal (2). Method.   6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the cut crystal (2) is shaped as a column.   6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the cut crystal (2) is shaped as a cube or a parallelepiped.   6. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the cut crystal (2) is shaped as a pyramid.   9. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the cut crystal (2) has a carat weight of 5 points or less.   10. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the cut crystal polyhedron (4) is a cube or a parallelepiped.   10. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the cut crystal polyhedron (4) is a pyramid.   12. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the cut crystal polyhedron (4) consists of 27 cut crystals.   13. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the cut crystal polyhedron (4) has a carat weight of about 240 points.   14. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the cut crystal polyhedron (4) consists of the crystal (2) of the same nature.   14. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the cut crystal polyhedron (4) consists of crystals (2) of different properties.   16. The finished gemstone or quasi-precious stone is configured to include a girdle (62) between the pavilion (61) and the crown (63). The method according to item.   The method according to claim 16, characterized in that the crown (63) in the finished gemstone or semi-precious stone is cut with a facet cut or a mix cut.   The method according to any one of claims 1 to 15, characterized in that the finished gemstone or semi-precious stone is cut with a cabochon cut. A finished gem or semi-precious stone (6) consisting of a pavilion (61) and a crown (63),
Consisting of at least four polyhedrons (2) of cut crystals glued together, in which at least two polyhedrons (2) of cut crystals are glued side by side to obtain a larger polyhedron (4), And the pavilion (61) or the crown (63) is constructed to include at least two cut crystal polyhedrons (2) bonded side by side with a gem or quasi-precious stone (6 ).   The finished gemstone or semi-precious stone (6) according to claim 19, characterized in that it is further configured to comprise a girdle (62) between the pavilion (61) and the crown (63).