For more than two years, the Birmingham Assay Office investigated the possible application of laser technology in the marking of jewelry and similar products. This marking process is called hallmarking.
Investigation and assessment of the technology started in the Czech Republic and Russia. Both countries introduced lasers for the marking of jewelry as a result of illicit trade and counterfeit punch marks. A visit to the Czech Republic confirmed that the quality of the laser marks being applied was impressive. This convinced the Birmingham Assay Office that the technology could be developed further in terms of its versatility to mark a wide range of finished jewelry coming into Britain that could not be marked by conventional methods without damage. Laser techniques also provide more intelligible hallmarks, thereby benefiting the consumer.
The technology developed in the Czech Republic was based on a laser beam fired through a mask or stencil. Generally, only one symbol was applied. After further research, the Birmingham Assay Office developed a method of marking products that leaves a more intelligible impression than those pieces marked the old way. Also, many pieces could not be satisfactorily marked by traditional methods, owing to their fragility. Laser marks do not cause distortion, sinking or bruising, which reduces substantially any finishing costs after hallmarking.
The use of the technology by the Birmingham Assay Office, the first British assay office to employ the technique, represents the first fundamental change to conventional marking by punching in several hundred years. In October 1997, a regulation of the British Hallmarking Council approved the laser marking technique. Other assay offices have since adopted the laser-marking technology.
Lasers have been used in industry for many years, most recently in the jewelry industry for surface decoration. Laser hallmarking is ideal for marking more delicate products, such as some traditional Indian jewelry. In addition, the consumer and retailer also benefit from the larger and more legible marks, as well as from the ease with which logos, pattern numbers and sequential serial numbers can be applied. As a result, the product is easier to trace.
— The preceding originally appeared in Gold Technology, a publication of Swiss-based World Gold Council.
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