Machines making a Gold Chain
There are benefits to you between machine-made and hand-made gold chains.
The most obvious difference is that of Price.
Once an analysis has been made of every twist and turn that a human's hand makes in bending a shaping a gold wire into a simple trace chain, and a machine programmed to repeat those movements, then the machine can sit and repeat the links hour after hours and day after day. Some very clever modifications have to be made in some patterns such as introducing a solder core to the wire to allow a simple baking of the chain to form complete links.
Today the tool-makers and machine programmers are so clever that there is an array of chains made by machine that are so deft that they would not be suitable to be made by hand. Some hanging chain is so light that it would blow away in the intense torch, some box is made so cleverly that it would take too long to compete. The lighter the chain the more suited to being machine made.
When it come to sheer versatility in taking a piece of wire and imagining a finished link in a chain the human hand and brain still wins out. Go to machine made chain prices
But machines can work thinner than man, in fact it is a tribute to the Toolmakers skills that they can have links made from tubing where the thickness has come down and the strength remained so comparatively strong. The weight that a tube carries is much less than an equivalent thickness wire link so it does not need to be as strong!
Machines can bring big designs within the prices achievable by many.
Machines can make some links better than can be made by hand.
A simple guide to all chain is that the price is composed of several parts.
- The cost of gold. Remember that 750 gold has twice as much gold as 375 in one gram, but that a link in 18ct gold weighs more than the same link in 9ct Gold. Gold is heavier than silver or copper, so that it will weigh heavier as gold is substituted in the alloy. The difference in the cost of gold in metal is more than twice the price.
- The cost of manufacturer. Forming a ring and soldering is the simplest, twisting adds a little more. Filing adds a cost but saves the metal that is filed off, but filings are less valuable that wire.
- The price of Distribution. If the manufacturer sells to just a few wholesalers he has a very low cost, with each firm buying hundreds of thousands of pounds a year of chain. If he sells direct to the retailer is costs him a bit more to service say 100 shops, but he has the advantage of spreading his risk, and one person can handle all of the extra work. If he sells direct to the public - like a farmer and his farm shop, he must have a team of dedicated sale people, in a nice environment in practice a shop. He must advertise his presence and have a major car park for them to travel from all over the country. Manufacturers prefer to sell to shops, and wholesalers are few and far between as shops join together into buying groups to offer makers advantages.
- Value-added Tax. The chancellor needs to fund Schools, the elderly, and everyone in between, so onto the price the shop thinks it will sell goods for it adds 17½% for the chancellor. That ends up with some silly prices - so the shop then modifies that to a sensible price and gives the chancellor 175/1175ths of the price or 14.81% of the Selling Price Tax Included.
I hope this limited outline of chains has been of interest and that we can help you either with a special hand made link, or a cost effective machine made chain.
