A New Method For Growing Watch Springs

[AndyHull]

I thought you might be interested in this article that appeared on Hackaday

https://www.empa.ch/web/s604/liga-watch

[yankeedog]

Every thing old is new again.worthwhile reading. 

[Klassiker]

Thanks for the link. It's an interesting read. Maybe I missed something, but they don't seem to be claiming any advantages over the conventional production methods, just saying "we can do this".

[clockboy]

6 hours ago, AndyHull said:

I thought you might be interested in this article that appeared on Hackaday

https://www.empa.ch/web/s604/liga-watch

Interesting development. I wonder how they react to our traditional cleaning methods and cleaning solutions. 

[AndyHull]

5 hours ago, Klassiker said:

Thanks for the link. It's an interesting read. Maybe I missed something, but they don't seem to be claiming any advantages over the conventional production methods, just saying "we can do this".

I got that impression too. Given that this is a research project, they may be keeping that information close to their chest. After all if it confers some major advantage, then you don't want the competition to know what that is until you are in a position to exploit it commercially.

[Nucejoe]

I wonder if our children will be collecting cheap Chinees demagnetizers, since silicone hairsprings don,t get affected by magnetic field.

Cheap Chinees complete silicone balance hairspring would be nice. 

 No lubricant needed on silicone jewels. 

 

 

[JohnR725]

It looks like their processes competing with Omega's process I wonder what the advantage would be? Then here's a link to what Omega is up to with their hairspring.

https://youtu.be/MZ9j-MYDs9Y

[nickelsilver]

Printing of watch parts has been done for at least 20 years, normally referred to as liga or one of the company's name Mimotec. Hairsprings have been done, I didn't really see what's different here but perhaps the alloys are improving.

It's not a technique used in mass production generally, but does work well for parts that would be impossible to machine otherwise.