The industrial diamond market is a huge one, but relatively unknown by the general public, providing a wide range of solutions for different manufacturing sectors, Antwerp Facets says.
Ask people to think of diamonds, and the overwhelming response is of a sparkling engagement or wedding ring, or a bracelet, necklace or earrings set with beautiful gems. But ask an industrialist to imagine a diamond and the response will be altogether different.
Most people know very little, if anything, about the use of diamonds for industrial purposes. And what makes that all the more surprising is that industrial diamonds are a huge market and far outstrip the gem-quality diamond market. Moreover, industrial diamonds play an enormous role in a wide range of industries that make everyday life efficient and easier.
The hardness of diamonds makes them ideal for use in cutting and grinding tools, and are embedded in diamond-tipped drill bits and saws, while diamond powder is widely used as an abrasive. There is increasing research into the use of diamonds as a semiconductor suitable to build microchips. Diamonds are even used to create coatings for uses as varied as jet planes, kitchen surfaces and spacecraft, including the Pioneer probes to Venus in 1978 which had to be able to endure extreme temperatures and conditions.
The industrial-grade diamond market is very different to that of gem-grade diamonds. Because industrial diamonds are needed mostly for their hardness and thermal conductivity, possessing four times the conductivity of copper, the gemmological characteristics of gem-quality diamonds, such as clarity and color, are largely irrelevant. That is why 80 percent of diamonds mined every year, or more than 100 million carats, are not suited for use in jewellery, and channelled for industrial use. In addition, more than 500 million carats of synthetic diamonds are produced every year for industrial use, and around 90 percent of diamond grinding grit is of synthetic origin, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), with a large proportion made in China.
Needless to say, the boundary between gem-quality diamonds and industrial diamonds can sometimes be blurred. When demand for polished goods is strong, then low-quality or small diamonds that would at other times find themselves being sent for industrial use find their way to diamond manufacturers for polishing.
Even though it costs more than other abrasive materials, diamonds are more cost effective in a wide range of industrial processes because they cut faster and last longer than other possible alternatives. Furthermore, synthetic industrial diamonds have been found to be better than natural diamonds because they can be produced in almost unlimited quantities, and their properties specifically customized for specific applications. Consequently, synthetic diamonds accounts for more than 90 percent of the industrial diamonds used in the United States.
In 2010, total U.S production of industrial diamonds was estimated at around 93 million carats, and the United States was also one of the world’s leading consumer markets. Domestic output included synthetic grit, powder, and stone. The major consumers of industrial diamonds in the United States include computer chip production, construction, machinery manufacturing, mining services in drilling for minerals, oil, and gas exploration, stone cutting and polishing, and transportation systems. Stone cutting and highway building and repair consumed most of the industrial diamonds produced.
Meanwhile, high-technology uses for industrial diamonds include close-tolerance machining of ceramic parts for the aerospace industry, heat sinks in electronic circuits, lenses for laser radiation equipment, polishing of silicon wafers and disk drives, and other applications in the computer industry.
Loose powders made with synthetic diamonds for polishing are used mostly for the finishing of cutting tools, gemstones, jewel bearings, optical surfaces, silicon wafers, and wire-drawing dies for computer chips. Hundreds of other products made from ceramics, glass, metals, and plastics also are finished with diamond powders.
“The United States is likely to continue to be one of the world’s leading markets for industrial diamonds into the next decade and likely will remain a significant producer and exporter of synthetic industrial diamond as well,” the USGS said in its annual report for 2010. “Owing to the negative impact of the economic recession on U.S. manufacturing sectors that utilize industrial diamond, U.S. imports in 2009 declined significantly compared with those of 2008, but they returned to prerecession levels in 2010.
“U.S. demand for industrial diamond is likely to continue in the construction sector as the United States continues building and repairing the nation’s highway system. Industrial diamond coats the cutting edge of saws used to cut cement in highway construction and repair work. Demand for synthetic diamond grit and powder is expected to remain greater than that for natural diamond material. Constant-dollar prices of synthetic diamond products probably will continue to decline as production technology becomes more cost effective; the decline is even more likely if competition from low-cost producers in China and Russia continues to increase,” the USGS added.
Natural industrial diamond resources have been discovered in more than 35 countries. And while natural diamond accounts for about 1.2 percent of all industrial diamond used, synthetic diamond accounts for the remainder. At least 15 countries have the technology to produce synthetic diamond.
U.S. company Apollo Diamond, Inc., developed and patented a method for growing extremely pure, gem-quality diamonds with flawless crystal structure using the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. The CVD technique transforms carbon into plasma, which then is precipitated onto a substrate as diamond.
In the industrial diamond sphere, CVD diamond’s highest value is in the high-tech sector. CVD diamonds can be used to make extremely powerful lasers, to create cellular telephones that fit into a watch, and storage devices for MP3 players that can store 10,000 movies. In addition, they can be used to create frictionless medical replacement joints, or to coat cars so that they do not suffer scratches. The greatest potential use for CVD diamond is in computer technology, with scientists saying that diamond computer chips are more durable because they can work at temperatures up to 1,000° C, while silicon computer chips stop working at about 150° C. This means that diamond computer chips will probably work at a much higher frequency or faster speed and can be placed in a high-temperature environment.
Natural and synthetic industrial diamonds differ significantly in price, with natural industrial diamonds. This varies from an average of $1 per carat for bort size material, to about $2.50 to $10 per carat for most stones, although some larger stones are sold for up to $200 per carat. Meanwhile, the price of synthetic industrial diamonds varies according to particle strength, size, shape, crystallinity, and the absence or presence of metal coatings. In general, synthetic diamond prices for grinding and polishing range from as low as $0.40 to $2.00 per carat.
In 2008, industrial diamonds were produced in 32 countries. Total industrial diamond output worldwide was estimated by the USGS to be about 4.62 billion carats valued between $1.65 and $2.00 billion. Natural industrial diamond production worldwide was estimated to be more than 71.8 million carats, a 6 percent decrease compared with that of 2007. The Democratic Republic of Congo was the leading producing country, followed by Australia and Russia.
These three countries produced more than 72 percent of the world’s natural industrial diamonds. Synthetic industrial diamond production worldwide was estimated to be more than 4.55 billion carats, a slight increase compared with that of the previous year. China was the leading producing country with an estimated production of four billion carats, according to the USGS, followed by the United States, Russia, Ireland, and South Africa.
Diamonds offer many advantages for precision machining and longer tool life. In addition, the use of wear-resistant diamond coatings to increase the life of materials that compete with diamonds is a rapidly growing application. Increased tool life not only leads to lower costs per unit of output but also means fewer tool changes and longer production runs. In view of the many advantages that come from increased tool life and that diamond film surfaces can increase durability by a factor of 50, it is forecast that there will be a much increased use of diamonds as an engineering material.
Synthetic diamonds for abrasive tools and wear parts will continue to replace competing materials in many industrial applications by providing closer tolerances as well as extending tool life, such as replacing natural diamond stone and tungsten carbide products used in the drilling and tooling industries.
Demand for synthetic diamond grit and powder is expected to remain greater than for natural diamond material. Constant-dollar prices of synthetic diamond products probably will continue to decline as production technology becomes more cost effective; the decline is even more likely if competition from low-cost producers in China and Russia continues to increase.
Ironically, one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of industrial diamond supermaterials is De Beers through its Element Six subsidiary whose main plants are in China, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, South Africa and the UK. The latest figures for the company show that it is a sizeable operation. Even in 2007, it had 3,600 employees and sales of $500 million.
However, industrial diamonds are not new to the company, since it has been working in the world of supermaterials for more than 50 years. Indeed, Element Six can trace its history back to 1946 when Sir Ernest Oppenheimer established the first company in the world to focus on the industrial uses of natural diamonds, called Industrial Distributors Ltd. The following year, a dedicated research laboratory was set up in Johannesburg as a key means for understanding materials and the development of new applications relating to diamonds.
Its business activities are organized into four areas – Advanced materials, Hard materials, Oil and gas, and Technologies. Its industrial diamond supermaterials are used in applications such as cutting, grinding, drilling, shearing and polishing. The Technologies business uses the extreme properties of diamond beyond hardness, through manufacturing very pure industrial diamond using chemical vapour deposition (CVD) techniques. These properties are opening up potential applications in a wide array of industries such as optics, power transmission, water treatment, semi-conductors and sensors.
Meanwhile, the firm’s research projects indicate the vast range of areas where synthetic diamonds can make a huge difference. These include underwater imaging, medical imaging, ophthalmology, cancer therapy and multispectral imaging, high-power lasers, diamond detectors in the Big Bang Machine at CERN, and eye cancer therapy.
