WO2000057254A1 - Customisation of jewellery - Google Patents

Customisation of jewellery Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2000057254A1
WO2000057254A1 PCT/ZA2000/000049 ZA0000049W WO0057254A1 WO 2000057254 A1 WO2000057254 A1 WO 2000057254A1 ZA 0000049 W ZA0000049 W ZA 0000049W WO 0057254 A1 WO0057254 A1 WO 0057254A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
design
jewellery
jewellery piece
piece
facility
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/ZA2000/000049
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Anthony John Bond
Original Assignee
Laser Optronic Technologies (Proprietary) Limited
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Laser Optronic Technologies (Proprietary) Limited filed Critical Laser Optronic Technologies (Proprietary) Limited
Priority to AU37756/00A priority Critical patent/AU3775600A/en
Publication of WO2000057254A1 publication Critical patent/WO2000057254A1/en

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Classifications

    • GPHYSICS
    • G05CONTROLLING; REGULATING
    • G05BCONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
    • G05B19/00Programme-control systems
    • G05B19/02Programme-control systems electric
    • G05B19/418Total factory control, i.e. centrally controlling a plurality of machines, e.g. direct or distributed numerical control [DNC], flexible manufacturing systems [FMS], integrated manufacturing systems [IMS], computer integrated manufacturing [CIM]
    • G05B19/41865Total factory control, i.e. centrally controlling a plurality of machines, e.g. direct or distributed numerical control [DNC], flexible manufacturing systems [FMS], integrated manufacturing systems [IMS], computer integrated manufacturing [CIM] characterised by job scheduling, process planning, material flow
    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B33ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY
    • B33YADDITIVE MANUFACTURING, i.e. MANUFACTURING OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL [3-D] OBJECTS BY ADDITIVE DEPOSITION, ADDITIVE AGGLOMERATION OR ADDITIVE LAYERING, e.g. BY 3-D PRINTING, STEREOLITHOGRAPHY OR SELECTIVE LASER SINTERING
    • B33Y50/00Data acquisition or data processing for additive manufacturing
    • GPHYSICS
    • G05CONTROLLING; REGULATING
    • G05BCONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
    • G05B19/00Programme-control systems
    • G05B19/02Programme-control systems electric
    • G05B19/18Numerical control [NC], i.e. automatically operating machines, in particular machine tools, e.g. in a manufacturing environment, so as to execute positioning, movement or co-ordinated operations by means of programme data in numerical form
    • G05B19/4097Numerical control [NC], i.e. automatically operating machines, in particular machine tools, e.g. in a manufacturing environment, so as to execute positioning, movement or co-ordinated operations by means of programme data in numerical form characterised by using design data to control NC machines, e.g. CAD/CAM
    • G05B19/4099Surface or curve machining, making 3D objects, e.g. desktop manufacturing
    • YGENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y02TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Y02PCLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS
    • Y02P90/00Enabling technologies with a potential contribution to greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions mitigation
    • Y02P90/02Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Definitions

  • This invention relates to a system for the customisation of jewellery and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to a system for the customisation of hollow jewellery pieces.
  • the Invention extends further to a method for customisation of jewellery pieces.
  • Hollow jewellery has, to date, been manufactured by a complex process which includes an electroforming or electrodeposition step.
  • a prototype model of a desired item of jewellery is hand-crafted as a silver piece.
  • Silver is generally chosen for this purpose due to its malleability, which renders it easy to work.
  • Vulcanised rubber is cast around the silver prototype model and carefully separated to liberate the prototype, thus providing a vulcanised rubber mould of the desired jewellery item. Wax is then injected into the vulcanised rubber mould to produce a wax pattern corresponding to the silver prototype model.
  • the wax pattern is then metallized by dipping it in a silver solution and is thereafter immersed in an electroforming bath containing a gold potassium cyanide solution.
  • An electrical current is then applied between the metallized wax pattern, and an anode electrode immersed in the electroforming bath to cause electrodeposition of gold on the surface of the wax pattern.
  • the rate at which gold is electrodeposited is dependent on the surface area of the pattern and the concentration of gold potassium cyanide in solution.
  • a system for the customisation of jewellery comprising: a design server operable to produce a design of a desired jewellery piece to be manufactured; a user access facility operable by a user of the system to access the design server; a communication channel between the design server and the user access facility; and manufacturing means for manufacturing the desired jewellery piece from a design produced by the design server.
  • the system to include a database containing a catalogue of standard jewellery piece designs, for the application server to be operable by the user to customise any one or more of the standard jewellery piece designs, and for a new standard jewellery piece design to be downloadable to the database along the communication channel.
  • the manufacturing means to include a rapid prototyping facility and a production facility, for the rapid prototyping facility to include a computer-aided-design (CAD) processor operable to produce a CAD model of the desired jewellery piece from the design thereof, for the rapid-prototyping facility to produce at least one three-dimensional pattern derived from the CAD model, and for the production
  • CAD computer-aided-design
  • the rapid-prototyping facility to produce the at least one three-dimensional pattern by any one of the techniques of stereo lithography, fused deposition modelling, laminated object manufacturing, selective laser sintering, or any other rapid prototyping technique, for the desired jewellery piece to be a hollow jewellery piece, for the hollow jewellery piece to have at least one gemstone set therein, for the communication channel to be the Internet, and for the user access facility to be an
  • a method for the customisation of jewellery comprising the steps of: providing a design server operable to produce a design of a jewellery piece;
  • a user access facility operable by a user to access the design server along a communication channel between the design server and the user access facility; operating the design server to create a design of a desired jewellery piece to be manufactured; and manufacturing the desired jewellery piece from the design thereof thus produced.
  • the method includes the step of providing a catalogue of standard jewellery piece designs, for operating the application server to create the design of the desired jewellery piece by customising any one or more of the standard jewellery piece designs, and for downloading a new standard jewellery piece design to the catalogue along the communication channel.
  • the desired jewellery piece by the steps of: deriving a CAD model of the desired jewellery piece from the design thereof; rapid-prototyping at least one three-dimensional pattern derived from the CAD model; and producing the desired jewellery piece from the at least one three-dimensional pattern.
  • FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a system for the customisation of jewellery, according to the invention.
  • FIG. 1 a system for manufacturing hollow jewellery is indicated generally by reference numeral (1).
  • the system (1) includes a design server (2) operable to produce a design of a jewellery piece to be manufactured, a user access facility (3) in the form of an Internet-enabled computer workstation, a communication channel (4) between
  • the communication channel (4) is the Internet
  • the design server (2) is an Internet Web server.
  • the system (1) also includes a database (6) of standard jewellery designs, which database is housed on the Web server (2) and which is accessible by a would-be purchaser of jewellery through the computer workstation (3).
  • the system (1) also provides for a new design for a hollow jewellery piece to be created by a jewellery designer on a Computer Aided Design (CAD) workstation (not shown) and downloaded through the Internet (4) to the database (6) on the design server (2).
  • CAD Computer Aided Design
  • the manufacturing means (5) includes a a rapid prototyping facility (7) and a production facility (8).
  • the rapid prototyping facility (7) includes a CAD processor (9) and a Stereo Lithography (SL) machine (10).
  • the CAD processor (9) is connectable to the design server (2).
  • the rapid prototyping facility (9) and its operation is well known in the art but will be described here for completeness.
  • the CAD processor (10) produces data relating to a three-dimensional model of an item of jewellery which is to be manufactured.
  • the three-dimensional CAD model is converted through a translation facility (not shown) into a file format which can be recognised by the
  • SL machine (10).
  • An example of such a file format is the .STL format developed by the Albert Consulting Group.
  • the .STL file consists of sets of x, y and z co-ordinates, each set representing a triangular facet on the surface of the three dimensional CAD model.
  • the three-dimensional CAD model is "sliced” into layers by “slice” software (9) to produce program steps which guide the SL machine (8) in producing a three-dimensional pattern (11) of the hollow jewellery piece.
  • the SL Machine (10) has a laser which generates an ultraviolet beam, and a vat equipped with an elevator table.
  • the vat is filled with a photopolymerisable liquid resin.
  • the laser is directed over the surface of the resin to solidify a two-dimensional cross-section on the surface of the photopolymer corresponding to the first "slice" of the three-dimensional CAD model.
  • the elevator table is then dropped sufficiently to cover the solid polymer with another layer of liquid resin and the laser then solidifies the next "slice" of the model.
  • a three-dimensional pattern (not shown) of the hollow jewellery piece is built from the bottom slice up.
  • the three-dimensional pattern (not shown) can be solid, but it is known for the interior of the pattern to be formed as a lattice in order to decrease the weight of the pattern and to minimise the consumption of photopolymerisable liquid resin in the production of the pattern.
  • a purchaser of jewellery accesses the database (6) of available jewellery designs on the Web server (2) by means of the Internet-enabled computer workstation (3).
  • the user selects a jewellery design and is prompted to enter sizing and other user-specific configuration data.
  • the selected design and the user-specific data is downloaded onto the CAD processor (9) which produces therefrom data relating to a CAD model of the selected jewellery item.
  • the desired jewellery piece is then effected from the three-dimensional CAD model according to any applicable production process in the production facility (8).
  • the desired jewellery piece may be manufactured by rapid-prototyping from the CAD model a three-dimensional pattern of the desired jewellery piece, electrodepositing a layer of metal on the surface of the three-dimensional pattern thus produced.
  • forming tools for forming the jewellery piece may be designed from the CAD model of the jewellery piece, and CAD models of the forming tools themselves produced by the CAD processor (9). Three-dimensional patterns of the forming tools themselves are then rapid-prototyped in the rapid-prototyping facility (7) and moulds of the forming tools produced from these patterns by techniques which are well known in the art and which not be described here in detail. The forming tools are then cast from the moulds and then used to form the jewellery piece.
  • the invention therefore provides a system and a method for manufacturing jewellery pieces which reduces the number of design steps and iterations employed in prior art equivalents, and which facilitates the mass-customization of hollow jewellery pieces.

Abstract

A system for the customisation of jewellery comprises: a design server operable to produce a design of a desired jewellery piece to be manufactured; a user access facility operable by a user of the system to access the design server; a communication channel between the design server and the user access facility; and a rapid prototyping facility together with a production facility for manufacturing the desired jewellery piece from a design produced by the design server.

Description

CUSTOMISATION OF JEWELLERY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a system for the customisation of jewellery and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to a system for the customisation of hollow jewellery pieces. The Invention extends further to a method for customisation of jewellery pieces.
BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION
Although, in the description which follows, the invention will be described with particular reference to the customisation of hollow jewellery pieces, it is to be clearly understood that the scope of the invention is not limited to this particular application.
Hollow jewellery has, to date, been manufactured by a complex process which includes an electroforming or electrodeposition step.
Typically, a prototype model of a desired item of jewellery is hand-crafted as a silver piece. Silver is generally chosen for this purpose due to its malleability, which renders it easy to work. Vulcanised rubber is cast around the silver prototype model and carefully separated to liberate the prototype, thus providing a vulcanised rubber mould of the desired jewellery item. Wax is then injected into the vulcanised rubber mould to produce a wax pattern corresponding to the silver prototype model.
It is customary to have a metallic wire projecting from the wax for reasons which will become apparent below.
The wax pattern is then metallized by dipping it in a silver solution and is thereafter immersed in an electroforming bath containing a gold potassium cyanide solution.
An electrical current is then applied between the metallized wax pattern, and an anode electrode immersed in the electroforming bath to cause electrodeposition of gold on the surface of the wax pattern. The rate at which gold is electrodeposited is dependent on the surface area of the pattern and the concentration of gold potassium cyanide in solution.
Once a sufficiently thick layer of gold has been deposited on the wax pattern, it is then removed from the electroforming bath. The metallic wire is removed, whereupon the workpiece is heated causing the wax of the mould to melt and to pour out through the aperture left by the metallic wire. The jewellery workpiece is then finished, typically by closing off the aperture through which the molten wax was removed.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that this method of jewellery production is tedious and time consuming and requires a considerable lead-time to bring a new jewellery design to market, due to the necessity of first producing a prototype model of the new item of jewellery, and thereafter making a rubber mould therefrom in order to produce a wax pattern. Furthermore, whilst this prior art method may be cost effective for large production volumes, it significantly increases the cost of customising and manufacturing unique items of hollow jewellery.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
It is the object of this invention to provide a system and a method for the
customisation of jewellery which will, at least partially, alleviate the abovementioned difficulties and disadvantages.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with this invention there is provided a system for the customisation of jewellery, comprising: a design server operable to produce a design of a desired jewellery piece to be manufactured; a user access facility operable by a user of the system to access the design server; a communication channel between the design server and the user access facility; and manufacturing means for manufacturing the desired jewellery piece from a design produced by the design server.
Further features of the invention provide for the system to include a database containing a catalogue of standard jewellery piece designs, for the application server to be operable by the user to customise any one or more of the standard jewellery piece designs, and for a new standard jewellery piece design to be downloadable to the database along the communication channel.
Still further features of the invention provide for the manufacturing means to include a rapid prototyping facility and a production facility, for the rapid prototyping facility to include a computer-aided-design (CAD) processor operable to produce a CAD model of the desired jewellery piece from the design thereof, for the rapid-prototyping facility to produce at least one three-dimensional pattern derived from the CAD model, and for the production
facility to produce the desired jewellery piece from the at least one three-dimensional pattern.
Yet further features of the invention provide for the rapid-prototyping facility to produce the at least one three-dimensional pattern by any one of the techniques of stereo lithography, fused deposition modelling, laminated object manufacturing, selective laser sintering, or any other rapid prototyping technique, for the desired jewellery piece to be a hollow jewellery piece, for the hollow jewellery piece to have at least one gemstone set therein, for the communication channel to be the Internet, and for the user access facility to be an
Internet-enabled computer workstation.
In accordance with this invention there is provided a method for the customisation of jewellery, comprising the steps of: providing a design server operable to produce a design of a jewellery piece;
providing a user access facility operable by a user to access the design server along a communication channel between the design server and the user access facility; operating the design server to create a design of a desired jewellery piece to be manufactured; and manufacturing the desired jewellery piece from the design thereof thus produced.
There is also provided for the method to include the step of providing a catalogue of standard jewellery piece designs, for operating the application server to create the design of the desired jewellery piece by customising any one or more of the standard jewellery piece designs, and for downloading a new standard jewellery piece design to the catalogue along the communication channel.
There is further provided for manufacturing the desired jewellery piece by the steps of: deriving a CAD model of the desired jewellery piece from the design thereof; rapid-prototyping at least one three-dimensional pattern derived from the CAD model; and producing the desired jewellery piece from the at least one three-dimensional pattern.
There is still further provided for rapid-prototyping the at least one three-dimensional pattern by any one of the techniques of stereo lithography, fused deposition modelling, laminated object manufacturing, selective laser sintering, or any other rapid prototyping technique.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
A preferred embodiment of the invention is described below, by way of example only, and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a system for the customisation of jewellery, according to the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring to Figures 1 a system for manufacturing hollow jewellery is indicated generally by reference numeral (1).
The system (1) includes a design server (2) operable to produce a design of a jewellery piece to be manufactured, a user access facility (3) in the form of an Internet-enabled computer workstation, a communication channel (4) between
the design server (2) and the Internet-enabled computer workstation (3), and a manufacturing means indicated generally by reference numeral (5).
In this embodiment, the communication channel (4) is the Internet, and the design server (2) is an Internet Web server.
The system (1) also includes a database (6) of standard jewellery designs, which database is housed on the Web server (2) and which is accessible by a would-be purchaser of jewellery through the computer workstation (3). The system (1) also provides for a new design for a hollow jewellery piece to be created by a jewellery designer on a Computer Aided Design (CAD) workstation (not shown) and downloaded through the Internet (4) to the database (6) on the design server (2).
The manufacturing means (5) includes a a rapid prototyping facility (7) and a production facility (8).
The rapid prototyping facility (7) includes a CAD processor (9) and a Stereo Lithography (SL) machine (10). The CAD processor (9) is connectable to the design server (2).
The rapid prototyping facility (9) and its operation is well known in the art but will be described here for completeness. The CAD processor (10) produces data relating to a three-dimensional model of an item of jewellery which is to be manufactured. The three-dimensional CAD model is converted through a translation facility (not shown) into a file format which can be recognised by the
SL machine (10). An example of such a file format is the .STL format developed by the Albert Consulting Group.
The .STL file consists of sets of x, y and z co-ordinates, each set representing a triangular facet on the surface of the three dimensional CAD model.
The three-dimensional CAD model is "sliced" into layers by "slice" software (9) to produce program steps which guide the SL machine (8) in producing a three-dimensional pattern (11) of the hollow jewellery piece.
The SL Machine (10) has a laser which generates an ultraviolet beam, and a vat equipped with an elevator table. The vat is filled with a photopolymerisable liquid resin. With the elevator table set just below the surface of the liquid resin in the vat, the laser is directed over the surface of the resin to solidify a two-dimensional cross-section on the surface of the photopolymer corresponding to the first "slice" of the three-dimensional CAD model. The elevator table is then dropped sufficiently to cover the solid polymer with another layer of liquid resin and the laser then solidifies the next "slice" of the model. In this manner, a three-dimensional pattern (not shown) of the hollow jewellery piece is built from the bottom slice up. The three-dimensional pattern (not shown) can be solid, but it is known for the interior of the pattern to be formed as a lattice in order to decrease the weight of the pattern and to minimise the consumption of photopolymerisable liquid resin in the production of the pattern.
In use, a purchaser of jewellery accesses the database (6) of available jewellery designs on the Web server (2) by means of the Internet-enabled computer workstation (3). The user selects a jewellery design and is prompted to enter sizing and other user-specific configuration data. The selected design and the user-specific data is downloaded onto the CAD processor (9) which produces therefrom data relating to a CAD model of the selected jewellery item.
Manufacture of the selected jewellery item is then effected from the three-dimensional CAD model according to any applicable production process in the production facility (8). For example, the desired jewellery piece may be manufactured by rapid-prototyping from the CAD model a three-dimensional pattern of the desired jewellery piece, electrodepositing a layer of metal on the surface of the three-dimensional pattern thus produced.
Alternatively, forming tools for forming the jewellery piece may be designed from the CAD model of the jewellery piece, and CAD models of the forming tools themselves produced by the CAD processor (9). Three-dimensional patterns of the forming tools themselves are then rapid-prototyped in the rapid-prototyping facility (7) and moulds of the forming tools produced from these patterns by techniques which are well known in the art and which not be described here in detail. The forming tools are then cast from the moulds and then used to form the jewellery piece.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the use of a CAD model of a desired jewellery piece in conjunction with a rapid-prototyping facility enables jewellery to be rapidly and economically customized to individual users' requirements.
The invention therefore provides a system and a method for manufacturing jewellery pieces which reduces the number of design steps and iterations employed in prior art equivalents, and which facilitates the mass-customization of hollow jewellery pieces.

Claims

1. A system for the customisation of jewellery, comprising: a design server operable to produce a design of a desired jewellery piece to be manufactured; a user access facility operable by a user of the system to access the design server; a communication channel between the design server and the user access facility; and manufacturing means for manufacturing the desired jewellery piece from a design produced by the design server.
2. A system as claimed in claim 1 which includes a database containing a catalogue of standard jewellery piece designs.
3. A system as claimed in claim 2 in which the application server is operable by the user to customise any one or more of the standard jewellery piece designs.
4. A system as claimed in either one of claims 2 or 3 in which a new standard jewellery piece design is downloadable to the database along the communication channel.
5. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the manufacturing means includes a rapid prototyping facility and a production facility.
6. A system as claimed in claim 5 in which the rapid prototyping facility includes a computer-aided-design (CAD) processor operable to produce a CAD model of the desired jewellery piece from the design thereof.
7. A system as claimed in claim 6 in which the rapid-prototyping facility produces at least one three-dimensional pattern derived from the CAD model.
8. A system as claimed in claim 7 in which the production facility produces the desired jewellery piece from the at least one three-dimensional pattern.
9. A system as claimed in claim 8 in which the rapid-prototyping facility produces the at least one three-dimensional pattern by any one of the techniques of stereo lithography, fused deposition modelling, laminated object manufacturing, selective laser sintering, or any other rapid prototyping technique.
10. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the desired jewellery piece is a hollow jewellery piece.
11. A system as claimed in claim 10 in which the hollow jewellery piece has at least one gemstone set therein.
12. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the communication channel is the Internet.
13. A system as claimed in claim 12 in which the user access facility is an Internet-enabled computer workstation.
14. A method for the customisation of jewellery, comprising the steps of: providing a design server operable to produce a design of a jewellery piece; providing a user access facility operable by a user to access the design server along a communication channel between the design server and the user access facility; operating the design server to create a design of a desired jewellery piece to be manufactured; and manufacturing the desired jewellery piece from the design thereof thus produced.
15. A method as claimed in claim 14 which includes the step of providing a catalogue of standard jewellery piece designs.
16. A method as claimed in claim 15 in which the application server is operated to create the design of the desired jewellery piece by customising any one or more of the standard jewellery piece designs.
17. A method as claimed in either one of claims 15 or 16 in which a new standard jewellery piece design is downloaded to the catalogue along the communication channel.
18. A method as claimed in any one of claims 14 to 17 in which the desired jewellery piece is manufactured by the steps of: deriving a CAD model of the desired jewellery piece from the design thereof; rapid-prototyping at least one three-dimensional pattern derived from the
CAD model; and producing the desired jewellery piece from the at least one three-dimensional pattern.
19. A method as claimed in claim 18 in which the at least one three-dimensional pattern is rapid-prototyped by any one of the techniques of stereo lithography, fused deposition modelling, laminated object manufacturing, selective laser sintering, or any other rapid prototyping technique.
20. A system for the customisation of jewellery, substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
21. A method for the customisation of jewellery, substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
PCT/ZA2000/000049 1999-03-19 2000-03-20 Customisation of jewellery WO2000057254A1 (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
AU37756/00A AU3775600A (en) 1999-03-19 2000-03-20 Customisation of jewellery

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
ZA99/2209 1999-03-19
ZA992209 1999-03-19

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2000057254A1 true WO2000057254A1 (en) 2000-09-28

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PCT/ZA2000/000049 WO2000057254A1 (en) 1999-03-19 2000-03-20 Customisation of jewellery

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