JEWELRY TESTING
COMFORT WITH CONFIDENCE
Evaluation of fine, precious, semi–precious, costume, or children’s jewelry for performance characteristics in addition to regulatory requirements.
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
While regulatory standards exist for the testing of lead or nickel content, virtually no industry standards exist for testing the performance and durability of jewelry. This means that manufacturers and retailers of jewelry have little or no objective methods and data to assess the durability of their products or how they will perform for consumers. This leaves manufacturers and retailers uncertain if their quality objectives will be met and potentially facing the risk of product returns, recalls, and consumer dissatisfaction – ultimately putting their brand and reputation at risk.
SOLUTION
Jewelry Testing is the evaluation of fine, precious, semi–precious, costume, or children’s jewelry for performance characteristics in addition to regulatory requirements.
- Regulatory testing can determine if products comply with requirements such as lead in surface coatings per 16 CFR Part 1303, as well as California Proposition 65.
- Performance testing to customized standards for jewelry can identify how a product will perform for the consumer.
- A combination of regulatory and performance testing can provide you with the ability to better manage risk and protect your company’s brand.
What are the key benefits?
- Prove compliance of products to applicable regulations
- Evaluate how a product will perform in the hands of the consumer
- Assess product performance
- Analyze how normal usage will affect a product
- Reduce product returns
- Identify issues missed in the manufacturing process
- Enhance risk management and brand protection
OUR APPROACH
To provide our clients with the ability to better determine the durability and performance of their jewelry products, we worked with manufacturers and industry experts to develop objective quality standards. The result: a comprehensive range of customized services to help our clients evaluate the mechanical properties of their jewelry products, including:
- Clasp Evaluations: Evaluates the performance of clasps for tensile strength, actuation force and durability.
- Compression Test: Assesses the potential of crushing or denting on jewelry items.
- Wearing Back Test: Evaluates the performance of earrings, including post-type, snap-bar type and shepherds-hook type earrings.
- Setting Strength Test: Determines the force required to pull a gemstone out of its mounting.
- Tarnish Test: Evaluates the jewelry box components and materials for their potential to tarnish jewelry items.
- Tensile Test: Assess the strength of various chain types including herringbone, leather, mono filament line, etc. Also can be used to determine clasp-chain strength.
Why did Bureau Veritas develop performance testing services for jewelry products?
We developed these services at the request of a leading retailer that wanted to quantify the quality of its jewelry items, but found that no commonly accepted industry standards existed for the mechanical testing of jewelry. By working with manufacturers, agents and industry experts, we were able to develop objective quality standards. We can additionally assist with the metal content characterization by performing materials identifications/assays to determine the metal content of fine and semi-precious silver and gold jewelry items.