How to make medals for the Olympic Games in Sochi

Jewelry Factory "Adamas" invited on a tour of the workshops, which are made for the award of the competition "Sochi-2014" in the Winter Olympics, and thanks to their press office, you will see an exclusive report about the dream of every professional athlete - Olympic medals.

The birth of the medals begins in furnaces, where melted the bronze and silver. semicontinuous casting cast thick sheet metal. In the casting process air pores can be formed therein, and to avoid this, the metal sheet is rolled on multi-ton mill.

Further, from a rolled sheet metal blank made medals - the square plates, which are placed in an oven where heated with a protective atmosphere to 180 degrees Celsius and kept for 2 hours in order to remove internal stress in the next coin. Then it is cooled slowly.

After cooling, the preform falls first on a lathe where the cut is such a washer, then the second, higher accuracy, where the turning of the workpiece. Housing diameter coin after these operations is 100 mm, thickness 10 mm.

After treatment, nice to look at those shiny roundels.

Then the "Puck" is placed in such a device, it is fastened securely in

In order to make the procurement process in the holes for fastening the workpiece housing medals to technological adaptations.

This is such a neat hole.

Then the medal is attached through the holes on this device. Pay attention to the label.

Then the tool with the workpiece falls within the precision milling CNC machining center, where the method of high-speed milling (Hight Speed Milling) is performed applying the patterns and symbols of the Olympics - rings on the obverse of the coin

Patterns Olympics logo and name on the reverse of the Olympic disciplines.

Then, on the same machine engraving is performed the official name of the Olympic Games in three languages on the edge and pocket milling under mounting tape. All easier than ever!

Here is the obverse bronze medal of the Sochi Paralympic Games after the end of the milling process.

Then, the medal falls into the bath-precision-EDM wire-cut machine, where the electrical erosion cutting of metal is performed by 4 windows under crystals.

Then, on the silver and gold medals affixed by the manufacturer brand, testing is carried out on the sample line 960 and marking the state inspection of assay supervision.

After the holes are cut crystals (about them the story below), the medal goes to a precision plane grinder, which grinds master obverse and reverse of the coin body, to impart the desired texture of the obverse and reverse of the coin.

resurfacing procedure is over, it is time to take the ultrasonic bath, to throw off all medals pollution.

The next step - drilling holes for fastening pins, fixing tape and Treating edges of the holes, which are held by masters hand needle files.

I went into the next room to see what was going on with a medal, and there leading NTV Kirill Kiknadze with the crew removed the transmission episode about Olympic medals.

In addition to journalists from NTV there was a photographer from France-Presse - the largest French news agency. The photographer told me that those photos, which he did, later to be sold to other agencies inform. And our pictures from blogs, as you know, free take on entertainment resources.

I was distracted, okay, let's continue on our tour. After edging the coin hit the tumbling. A very interesting process. Here in vibrogaltovochnom drum corps medal with stainless steel fillers subjected to the processes necessary to ensure the presentation.

Simply put, medals body rubs against the metal balls of different sizes in the water with detergent.

These are the beads.

The device with medals comes under a jet of water from the tap. But that's not all!

After these tortures medal reaches the grinder, which produces pre-treatment The edge of the coin - the preparation of the surface for polishing.

And after grinding Edge medal falls into the polishing machine, which is usually polished gold chains that are produced here on the "Adamas" factory.

After polishing medal once again gets in an ultrasonic bath.

The last step in the production of Olympic medals - the assembly, the connection metal part medals and crystals.

But before that, they must lie in the refrigerator at a temperature of -35 degrees to the crystals easily entered into the grooves cut into the medals.

And even at room temperature, the crystal will expand and stand so firmly that it would be almost impossible to remove it from the medals.

After the medal is ready, it is packaged in plastic and placed in a safe.

And now tell you about the crystals. They are cut from such a sheet of polycarbonate, which is similar to acrylic, but with properties far superior to him.

The thickness of it is the same as a coin.

A special cutter with a protective coating on the cutting edge has been selected for cutting polycarbonate crystals specialist factory.

At a CNC cut from a sheet of polycarbonate crystals of different sizes.

When cutting polikarbonart cooled jet of compressed air, to reduce friction and deformation of the workpiece.

The result here is a carved leaf.

Prepared crystals.

In all laser crystals will suffered like pattern that was engraved on the metal part of the coin.

To see this process take this piece of polycarbonate, go up to the third floor of the plant and go to the secret room through the door.

This equipment, which costs tens of thousands of euros, will be processed crystals.

The computer program is entered, select the desired pattern.

The laser is applied in a pattern exactly in the middle of the crystal.

Yellow contraption - discharge of combustion products during laser engraving.

This is what happens in the end.

Like all production processes are looked at, Now go to the warehouse of finished products, take a look some details and go to a place where he designed the coin.

These pins are installed in herds medals and are used for fastening the belt.

And these pins are set manually on the obverse Paralympic medals and are added to the symbols SOCHI2014 in Braille.

This is the nerve center of the plant, which designed the coin.

Initially, in order to obtain the rights to manufacture the medals was held a competition among different companies. "Adamas" did a better version of the coin in accordance with the terms of reference of the Organizing Committee and won the competition. But the creation of a prototype coin was veiled under the plant anniversary, to no one guessed the true purpose of the manufacture of medals. It is easy to discern the features of the current awards, which of course is different from the prototype.

This gold medal, but you did not see it in the report because it actually - silver) That is, inside it is silver, and the gold is covered in the plating bath (this stage is not in my reports) and becomes heavier than a silver medal by only 6 gram. However, it is thicker only a few microns, and to the naked eye does not see.

The gold medal is made up of an average of 525 grams of silver 960 samples and 6 grams of gold of 999 tests.

A silver medal - an average of 525 grams of silver 960 samples.

A bronze medal weighs an average of 460 grams.

Paralympic medals a little harder: gold - 680 grams of silver 960 samples and 6 grams of gold of 999 tests.

Note the braille and the fact that these medals are no gaps, as in the usual Olympic medals at the site of a large crystal.

Paralympic silver medal: on average, 680 grams of silver 960 sample

A bronze medal weighs an average of 585 grams.

Total for the manufacture of medals will be applied at least 3 kg of gold 999, about 2 tons of silver 960 samples and not less than 700 kg bronze. Total produced about 1,300 awards. For 98 sets of 6000 athletes compete. In the manufacture of the same coin it takes about 20 hours. Here is a sketch of the pattern, which is applied to the laser crystal.

The pattern applied to the award by means of engraving is a mosaic of national patterns of peoples of Russia.

Mesen, rakulskaya, uftyuzhskaya painting, Russian chintz patterns.

Gzhel, Khokhloma, Palekh, Zhostovo painting, drawings pavlopasadskih shawls, Vologda lace, Yakut motifs and patterns even Kubachi masters of Dagestan, almost all have these medals.