Most likely, everyone had cases in their life when their favorite gold jewelry broke, thin chains were torn, one item from a pair was lost - an earring, for example. Or just jewelry became irrelevant, went out of fashion ... One of the acceptable ways out of this situation is, for example, the melting of gold rings into a new piece of jewelry.
Before you decide to re-melt
Gold smelting in itself is an unprofitable event. And the more disadvantageous it will be, the lower the weight of the remelted product. The fact is that when gold is remelted, a process of technological carbonization occurs. The volumetric index of combustion directly depends on the sample of the product (the lower the sample, the higher the indicator) and can reach 10%. Therefore, if a final decision has been made to melt the product, it is better to collect as much gold scrap as possible, and then give it to a jewelry workshop.
Gold smelting: an individual method
There are two methods of melting gold, and both of them do not contain any complicated technological nuances:
- Initially, products and scrap are cleaned of dust and dirt.
- Then, with the individual melting method, scrap is placed in a special cup or even a spoon for melting. A gas burner is usually used to heat the metal.
- The molten metal can be preliminarily fused to an ingot for further work with it, or it can be immediately poured into the prepared form.
Gold smelting: a centralized method
Another method of smelting gold is called centralized. In this case, not one or two jewelry is melted, but a certain amount of gold scrap from various products with different breakdowns.
Here, the finished alloy will have a sample different from the starting materials. The sample is determined using a special chemical analysis after the cooling of the metal. Such remelting of gold is not carried out using a heating pad - special electric furnaces with electrodes are used. Also, during smelting, for a cleaner metal, graphite powder is used at the outlet. There are also high-frequency furnaces for melting gold, but it is advisable to use them already on an industrial scale.
The duration of the process and its cost
There are many factors that affect both the duration and the cost of the process of smelting gold scrap and manufacturing finished jewelry. This is the complexity of the product that the customer orders, and what kind of sample the gold scrap is for remelting. Of course, the skill of the jeweler who will work with the product takes not the last place.
On average, the production time can range from several hours - to melt a simple gold bar - and up to several months, if we are talking about jewelry of complex weaving and with inserts from precious stones.
Gold samples: which are what indicate
And finally, for those who do not know, I would like to say a few words about what a test is. Gold itself is a metal that is very soft and unstable before the influence of physical factors. Therefore, it is not suitable for everyday wear, and to give it a fortress, as well as a special stable shade, gold is fused with other metals such as silver, copper, etc.
So, that same test is the amount of pure gold in the product compared to the amount of impurities of other metals. We can see six samples: 375, 500, 583, 585, 750, 958. Take, for example, the 375th sample. This number means that in a thousand grams of pure gold alloy there were only 375 grams, and the remaining 625 were impurities. Well and accordingly, the 958th test - for one kilogram of an alloy of pure gold will be - 958 grams, and for impurities - only 42 grams. So the amount of impurities is considered for the rest of the samples.