De Beers Group Ignite has launched its latest diamond verification instrument, AMS Micro, one of the first devices to offer rapid, automated and autonomous screening of high volumes of the smallest melee diamonds.
AMS Micro complements De Beers Group Ignite’s comprehensive suite of diamond verification instruments, which provide solutions for screening diamonds of all sizes to underpin confidence in diamond companies’ product integrity.
“AMS Micro represents an important breakthrough for the industry, as it greatly improves screening of the smallest sizes of diamonds by automating this process with very high levels of speed, accuracy, and reliability, saving users significant time and money compared with existing manual processes,” said De Beers Group Ignite head Sarandos Gouvelis.
“It comes to market following years of dedicated research and development by our leading scientists, working in collaboration with industry participants, and will be a game-changer for diamond businesses that deal in large volumes of melee diamonds.”
The first AMS Micro instrument will be delivered by the end of February to the Swiss office of KGK, a diamond manufacturer and De Beers sightholder.
Following more than two years of development and rigorous testing, AMS Micro can screen up to 2,500 diamonds per hour in the 0.6mm to 0.9mm size range, automatically separating natural diamonds from lab-grown diamonds and other materials with a 0% false positive rate and a referral rate of less than 3%.
These high accuracy rates have the potential to deliver savings of up to 50% on laboratory costs, depending on screening volumes, said De Beers.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
