Thirdly, you cannot size one of those rings, as applying heat to it, ruins the ability of the metal to hold the stobe securely.
Actually, Sizing one down is possible, simply rivet a butterfly to the
shank.
Dean D Amick
TENSIONRING is a trademark held by a German company since 1995. It
can be researched @
http://navigation.helper.realnames.com/framer/1/262/default.asp?realna
me=USP
TO&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Euspto%2Egov&frameid=1&providerid=262&uid=300
04938 and goes back further as NIESSING TENSIONRING.
Bruce
First off, let me take a few bytes to apologize my machine’s recent
illness. By the time that I learned that my business machine was
infected, about sixty messages were passed on, mostlt to Orchid
subscribers with attachments to further infect more machines. I don’t
know how, but at some point, I must have executed an attachment and I
wish none of you had, but I have since received messages saying that
some of you did. For anyone that is still trying to recover, let me
let you know that McAffee does have the cure. Again, I’m sorry.
About Steve Kretchmer and his patents. He has only one patent that I
can find. It relates to his SK platinum sold by Hoover & Strong.
http://164.195.100.11/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u
=/neta
html/search-bool.html&r=3&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ft00&s1=kretchmer.INZZ.&O
S=IN/k retchmer&RS=IN/kretchmer
PLAT/S+, PLAT/SK and VIOLORO may be researched @
http://navigation.helper.realnames.com/framer/1/262/default.asp?realna
me=USP
TO&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Euspto%2Egov&frameid=1&providerid=262&uid=300
04938 as trademarks.
To the best of my knowledge, the use of a compression spring to hold
a solitary stone as in the style of a tension setting predates Steve
Kretchmer’s work. I thought that he held the use of the word “tension
setting” as a trademark, but can find no registration of it or
anything like it for the jewelry trade. I have made a couple of such
rings myself, and have been careful to distance myself from Mr.
Kretchmer.
What I believe is important to know is that the shank acts as a
spring. Any thick spots or thin spots in this spring will cause
failure. It is virtually impossible to maintain structural integrity
if one cuts or solders the shank. The tension in the shank needs to be
spead evenly. As the ring is worn, natural burnishing occurs on the
outer surface. This tends to spread the metals only on the outside
further tightening the stone.
Bruce D. Holmgrain
JACMBJ
About Steve Kretchmer and his patents. He has only one patent that I can find. It relates to his SK platinum sold by Hoover & Strong.
http://164.195.100.11/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1 &u =/neta html/search-bool.html&r=3&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ft00&s1=kretchmer.INZZ. &O S=IN/k retchmer&RS=IN/kretchmer
Kretchmer has patents on multiple processes. The following covers
heat treatments for four different gold alloys:
http://164.195.100.11/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u
=%2Fnetahtml%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=
PN%2F5188679
There are others out there. Note that he calls them “compression
spring settings” which is suitably generic to cover items that are
compression set without a ring involved, and/or avoids using the term
“tension ring” which may or may not be patented by someone else :-).
What I believe is important to know is that the shank acts as a spring. Any thick spots or thin spots in this spring will cause failure. It is virtually impossible to maintain structural integrity if one cuts or solders the shank. The tension in the shank needs to be spead evenly. As the ring is worn, natural burnishing occurs on the outer surface. This tends to spread the metals only on the outside further tightening the stone.
It’s not true that a thin or thick spot will cause failure. If the
ring is thin in one spot, that part of the ring will be the weakest.
Furthermore, the stresses on different parts of the ring are NOT
equal. The tangental force being applied on the stone is reacted to
with an equal and opposite force from the stone. These vectors of
force are tangental to the circular ring.
This puts the most force on the opposite part of the ring because the
two halves of the ring (when cut vertically) act as levers. Think of
prying open a paperclip or a jump ring… the first bending occurs at
the opposite end to the opening, where the forces are most magnified.
The actual force there is a “pulling apart” force being exerted by
the stone, on the inside surface of the ring. The outside surface of
the ring is being “pushed together”, and the midpoint of the two is a
fulcrum for the levers.
As long as your ring is thick enough to resist the forces applied to
it in the various locations around the ring, you will be OK. In places
of less stress, it is OK to have the ring thinner, and thicker in
places of higher stress. Of course, when designing this kind of thing,
the easiest thing to do is to make the whole system uniform, and
suitable to handle the stresses at the point of greatest force.
I have a proof for this. Given any particular working tension ring, I
can add metal to any part of the ring, thereby making some parts
“thicker” and others “thinner.” This does not add any extra stress to
the ring, and since I’m adding material, and thereby strenghtening
the ring, it will still meet the minimal requirements for structural
integrity.
As for the hardening over time… this is not from surface
burnishing, but a property of the alloys involved. Kretchmer refers to
it in his patent above.
(Note too that a cast ring is not going to be of uniform strength
even though it may be of uniform strength, due to impurities in the
metal, or inconsistencies in the crystalline structure…)
- darcy
After reviewing the links that I provided referencing “tension
settings”, I find that spaces and line returns have been inserted and
the links won’t work. I have created a webpage with the links.
http://www.goldwerx.com/tension.htm
Sorry.
BDH