Jewellery factory setup checklist: ten stages and every machine you need

This is the checklist we work through with customers building a new floor or expanding an existing one. It follows our catalogue's ten-stage workflow, because that is the order production actually runs — and buying out of order is the most expensive mistake in this business.

Print it, take it to any supplier, and make them answer it.

Before you buy anything: four questions

1. What will you produce? Jewellery types, design families, typical stone sizes and counts per piece.
2. How much, per month? Be realistic about year one, not year five.
3. What comes into the building? Incoming power — single phase or three phase, and at what rating. This constrains more decisions than anything else.
4. What space do you have? Floor area, ceiling height, door widths and the route for getting an 850 kg machine to its position.

Utilities: plan these first

The ten stages

Stage 1 — Designing & moulding

Equipment: 3D printer, resin, laser cutting machine.

Decide between LCD, DLP and MJM by what you value. LCD gives the largest build volume (197 × 122 × 200 mm on the FOTO 6K and FOCUS 6K). DLP gives finer XY resolution — down to 49 µm on the S3D-125 — for detail work. MJM wax jetting gives the highest daily capacity at 300 g and 15 µm layers. Choose direct-castable resin for patterns going into investment, and non-castable for approval models. See the 3D printing range.

Stage 2 — Moulding

Equipment: vulcanizer, liquid silicon, aluminium frame.

Converts masters into reusable moulds. Skip only if you are printing every pattern directly.

Stage 3 — Wax injection

Equipment: wax injector, wax, vacuum pump, spru wax mould, shoulder iron.

Do not underspecify this stage. Everything downstream inherits its consistency, and it is the most common cause of disappointing setting output. See why wax quality decides your setting machine's real output.

Stage 4 — Diamond setting

Equipment: diamond wax setting machine, compressor, air dryer, tray setting.

The automation stage, and usually the largest single productivity gain. Four models: Mini Pro (up to 10,000 stones/hour, 3 nozzles, 135 kg), PRO SERIES (~550 kg), ST-3D 1000 (18,000–20,000 diamonds/hour, 4 nozzles, 850 kg) and ST-HDSSM (18,000–20,000, 8 nozzles, 835 kg). All hold ±0.02 mm spot drilling accuracy. Compare them side by side, or read the buyer's guide.

Stage 5 — Mixing & burning

Equipment: auto gypsum vacuum mixer, auto gypsum cleaner (water jet), flask, flask tong, rubber base, investment powder, burnout furnace.

Burnout cycle time frequently becomes the factory's real scheduling constraint once setting is automated. Size furnace capacity against your post-automation volume, not today's.

Stage 6 — Melting & casting

Equipment: casting machine, melting machine, graphite & ceramic.

IGBT induction melting across three bands: IG-1/2 (1–2 kg, 4–6 min, single phase 3.5 kW), IG-3/4 (3–4 kg, 6–8 min, 7 kW), IG-10/20 (10–20 kg, 15–20 min, 12 kW), all to 1200 °C. The IVC-1/2 adds induction-based bottom-pouring vacuum casting. See the casting and melting range.

Stage 7 — Hand polishing & micro setting

Equipment: polishing motor, ring expander, tweezer & plier, bur tools & hammer, saw blade & graver, micro setting machine & microscope.

Where your experienced setters add the most value once the machine handles volume work.

Stage 8 — Shouldering & marking

Equipment: laser marking, laser welding, tick welding, hydra welding.

The jewellery spot welding machine is a 200 W YAG platform with 150 J single pulse energy, 0.1–20 ms pulse width, 10× microscope and CCD viewing, and an in-built chiller. See the welding range and the marking range.

Stage 9 — Final polishing

Equipment: magnetic tumbler, vibrator & ultrasonic, barrel polish, electro polish, consumables.

Magnetic polishing reaches into detail that bulk media cannot; vibratory is better for general deburring across a batch. Most floors run both. See the finishing range.

Stage 10 — Measuring instruments

Equipment: gold testing, weighing scale, caliper & gauge, metal locator, magnifier & eye glass, currency counting machine.

XRF gold analysis via Signet FSDD (145 ± 15 eV, up to 72 elements, 1%–99.99% Au) or Signet Si-Pin (165 ± 5 eV, ppm to 99.99%), both at ±0.03% accuracy across solid, powder and liquid. See the testing range.

Phasing: what to buy first

Very few factories buy all ten stages at once, and they are usually right not to. The common phased path:

1. Phase 1 — wax injection, setting, basic finishing, measurement. Outsource casting.
2. Phase 2 — bring casting in-house: burnout furnace, induction melting, investment mixing. This is the largest capital block.
3. Phase 3 — add design capability in-house: 3D printing, moulding, laser cutting.
4. Phase 4 — laser marking and welding, advanced finishing, expanded QC.

If you are upgrading rather than building, ignore this order entirely and go to your constraint first — see how to increase production capacity.

Questions to ask any supplier

• Can you supply every stage, or will I be managing several vendors?
• Who commissions the machines, and do they train on my materials?
• What is the spare parts lead time to my location?
• Who wrote the control software, and who fixes it?
• Can I see a machine running my own wax and stones before I commit?
• What are the utility requirements, in writing, before I plan the layout?

Send us your plan

Give us your target output, available floor space and incoming power supply, and we will map the equipment across all ten stages and tell you what to buy first — and what can wait a year.

See the full ten-stage guide, send us your requirement, or call +91 98216 12340.