Platinum Alloy Durability Study

TechForm will present new research into platinum alloy durability at the 2017 Santa Fe Symposium May 21-14^th in Albuquerque, NM.

There is scant data available in the literature evaluating fitness for platinum alloys used in the creation of jewelry designs. This fact is not so surprising in an industry steeped in tradition and ruled by millennia of hands-on experience. Rather, a substantial body of tribal knowledge exists concerning what does and does not work, and for many years this was largely sufficient. Enter the digital revolution where cast versus hand-fabricated products now dominate, and tribal knowledge alone is no longer enough.

Currently, the two methods of production result in very different material properties, and this difference can affect the end consumer’s experience when it comes to wear resistance. Take, for example, the common alloy Pt90Ir10. This alloy was used to create much of the early 20th-century platinum jewelry, and a good amount of this jewelry is still in circulation today. And though purely anecdotal, there is substantial evidence that such platinum estate jewelry has stood up quite well to the test of time, remaining strong and resilient despite decades of daily wear. But is this still the case when legacy alloys used in hand fabrication are used to make jewelry in a purely cast form? This is the question that we seek to answer in the present research.

We are looking forward to establishing hard data on the comparative performance of mainstream alloys used in platinum jewelry manufacture. Wear performance in terms of resistance to dents, scratches, distortion, and cracking will be evaluated using controlled testing methods on a broad number of platinum alloys. This data will be incredibly valuable to jewelers, designers and retailers and should be employed to ensure that the alloys they utilize are strong enough to meet consumer expectations, secure valuable gemstones and stand up to the test of time.

If you cannot attend the Symposium in person this year, contact us directly after the event and we would be happy to discuss the research and share the working paper with you.

Join Teresa Frye at the 2017 Santa Fe Symposium:

Wear Resistance of Platinum Jewelry Alloys: A Comparative Study
2017 Santa Fe Symposium
May 21-24, 2017
Hotel Albuquerque
800 Rio Grande Blvd NW
Albuquerque, NM 87104

Registration Information