Aerospace and motorsports coating used for new technical jewellery

Bailey of Sheffield has teamed up with aerospace coatings specialist Wallwork Cambridge to customise its stainless steel necklaces and bracelets.
The newest addition to the Bailey of Sheffield range are beads, described as “finely machined cylinders in different geometries.” It is available in a range of colours, allowing customers to personalise their jewellery.

The jeweller’s website allows customers can choose the cable bracelet size, cable colour, bead geometry and the colours and number of beads.

Coatings are then applied by Wallwork in vacuum chambers, designed and built by the firm itself.

It uses a physical vapour deposition (PVD) process, and the items to be coated are rotated on a carousel within the vacuum chamber where a donor material in a crucible is bombarded with a high-energy electron beam.

This vaporises the donor material which is drawn to and condenses on the surface of the item to be coated under the influence of a negative electrical charge.

The micro-thin coating is even harder than the stainless steel substrate and is engineered to have a precise thickness and microstructure to impart the colour required.

Scott Bailey, managing director, said, “At the core of what we do is a technical aesthetic that allows our users to demonstrate their individuality. We combine precision engineering with hand finishing and assembly, producing uniquely numbered jewellery pieces that have their own character.

“Colour provides another level of customisation. We can offer an ever-expanding range of finishes from matt and gloss black through to gold with shades of rose, petrol blue and other colours in between.”