Clayway Silver Clay Eco-friendly Jewelry Material by Clayway Precious Metal Clay Co. |
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| DESIGN NAME: Clayway Silver Clay PRIMARY FUNCTION: Eco-friendly Jewelry Material INSPIRATION: Silver clay is made from electronic waste as a eco-friendly metalsmith material. In order to take green to a higher level, CLAYWAY start to think about redesign the production processes to fulfill the circular economy model design. Originally, silver powder was made by gas atomizer, but yield rate is low and huge energy waste on melting metal and maintains high temperature during all manufacturing processes. Therefore, CLAYWAY invented a chemical reduction method to create a low energy cost, 99% yield, and high-dispersed powder making process that could both reduce production cost and environmental impacts. UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: What makes CLAYWAY Silver Clay different is the circular economy model design. From the electronic waste as the source of raw materials, the sustainable manufacturing process, and the way how silver clay to be used, are all following with the idea of sustainable design. CLAYWAY use recycling electronic waste as raw material, high efficiency and energy-saving metal powder technology make silver powder, produce time-saving and energy-saving silver clay products for jewelry or other creations use. And produced jewelry, for example, could be recycled to the beginning and complete a sustainable circulation. OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: Silver Clay is an environmentally friendly material consisting of sub-micron powdered silver and cellulose and is made from recycled electronic waste. It is soft and can be shaped by hand to make jewelry, for example. The Clay then be fired in a kiln. During this process the organic part evaporates to leave pure silver. It has good strength, has a high gloss finish and only shrinks minimally in the drying process. PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: The project started in Mar 2017 and finished in Apr 2018 in Tainan, Taiwan, and was exhibited in Reddot in July 2018. |
PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: The production of silver clay can mainly be divided into three parts. First part, recycle electric waste into pure silver or silver salt, such as silver nitrate. Second part is chemical reduction which is producing correct specification of silver powder for silver clay use. Third part, clay making process, included mixing powder with one kind of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, which is eatable food additives, then degassing and aging, so that it matures and become more workable. And powder manufacture processes is the most difficult and important process in these three major processes. Silver powder occupies 92% of silver clay as a main component, therefore, characteristics of silver powder such as powder size, size range, dispersion, shape, tape density, and surface coating treatment, they all effect the performance and workability of clay a lot. Therefore, CLAYWAY invented the "Wet chemical reduction method" to make silver powder, because this process could control all powder characteristics during chemical reduction process and also much efficiency than gas atomizer. First, purify recycled silver and dissolve into nitric acid to form silver nitrate, and then react with ammonia as oxidant. Second, choose one kind of sodium alkyl naphthalene sulfonate as coating dispersant and add into both oxidant and reductant that help forming spherical powder and dispersed powder without coacervation. Third, by controlling the concentration and reaction speed, could obtain 99% of perfect size, spherical, and coated powders for silver clay. SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: Silver Clay is a soft, clay type metalsmithing material and can be shaped by hand to make silver jewelry, for example. Compare with traditional metalsmithing, which is, Save Energy：Like other soft clay, designers can easily operate in room temperature without traditional annealing process. Also, less electrical equipments are used, means lower power cost and more safe. Save Time：Without lost-wax casting process, designers can greatly shorten the time from prototyping to mass production, and simplify the application of different materials combination. Save environment：No chemical is needed in eaching, welding and so on. Safe：Non-toxic material, safe for everyone to use. TAGS: clayway, silver clay, metal clay, handmade RESEARCH ABSTRACT: In CLAYWAY's circular economy model, silver powder manufacturing is the most important and difficult part of our product. Because the characteristics and cost of silver powder greatly affect the workability and price of silver clay, this invention is to develop a new sustainable silver powder production method to achieve the goal of sustainable design. Generally speaking, industrial silver powder production is accompanied by high energy consumption, low yield and high pollution problems; it makes the silver clay costly and expensive. Based on it's knowledge in conductive paste and powder manufacturing, CLAYWAY rethink the preparation of silver powder must to be consistent with sustainable design. CLAYWAY want to design an energy-saving and high efficient silver powder making process, not only improve the workability of silver clay, but also being more environmentally friendly. After many times of gas atomizer tests, only achieved higher yield ray by slow down producing speed, however, slow down producing speed means more energy cost. Then, CLAYWAY think maybe chemical reduction could be the solution to produce silver powder. CLAYWAY utilize X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) to identify the silver content; scanning electron microscope (SEM), and particle size analyzer (PSD) to identify morphology and other characteristics of powder. One year later, a metal powder with a special coating and a uniform particle size is obtained. The cost of powders that originally required high pollution and energy consumption has been solved, and make more and more people could use this convenient material possible. CHALLENGE: CLAYWAY use chemical reduction method to produce silver powder, but crystallizing silver powder into a specific shape and certain size is very difficult. However, chemical reduction method is possible to improve the quality of silver clay and solve energy waste problems by gas atomizer at the same time. Thousands of experiments later, we finally found the right formula and reaction to control the crystal growth up to 1~3 um, and also spherical shape powder. ADDED DATE: 2018-11-14 15:46:09 TEAM MEMBERS (1) : WEI-NUNG CHEN & I-JU WANG IMAGE CREDITS: Image#1: CLAYWAY / clay to jewelry / 2018 Image#2: CLAYWAY / handmade image / 2018 Image#3: CLAYWAY / general steps / 2018 Image#4: CLAYWAY / all steps / 2018 Image#5: CLAYWAY / molding / 2018 PATENTS/COPYRIGHTS: Copyrights belong to CLAYWAY Precious Metal Clay Co., 2018 |
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| Visit the following page to learn more: http://www.clayway.com.tw | |||||
| CLIENT/STUDIO/BRAND DETAILS | |
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NAME: CLAYWAY Precious Metal Clay CO. PROFILE: CLAYWAY Precious Metal Clay CO. is the only manufacturing company of metal clay in Taiwan, and dedicating in the application of metal clay, reused material development, and promoting eco-fashion. We have advanced technology in silver powder and metal clay manufacturing, trying to reuse city waste by creating a connection between technology and aesthetics. In CLAYWAY physical store, we provide jeweler design programs, metal clay tutorials and metal clay selling. 100% of our silver sources are refined from electronic waste to be used as material or jewelry products. |
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Clayway Silver Clay Eco-Friendly Jewelry Material by Clayway Precious Metal Clay Co is Runner-up for A' Design Award in Sustainable Products, Projects and Green Design Category, 2018 - 2019.· Read the interview with designer Clayway Precious Metal Clay Co. for design Clayway Silver Clay here.· Press Members: Login or Register to request an exclusive interview with Clayway Precious Metal Clay Co.. · Click here to register inorder to view the profile and other works by Clayway Precious Metal Clay Co.. |
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