Lab Diamonds
What is formed over a billion years, one can generate within hours and days by focusing the elemental forces in a vacuum vessel. A method used to culture diamonds in the lab is the chemical vapour deposition (CVD).
Man-made or lab-grown diamonds (so called lab-diamonds) are optically, chemically and physically identical to their earth-mined counterparts.
Specialized CVD reactors are used to culture the high-quality roughs to become later a polished gem or a crystalline lens, an implant, a cutting blade, a scalpel edge, etc. Single crystalline, poly crystalline, electronic grade as well as highly oriented and ultra-nano crystalline material can be farmed.
In terms of jewellery, ethical and ecological gemstones are a booming market. Whichever way you look at lab grown diamonds, customers, especially younger generations want it and thus the growth is inevitable.
The smartest way culturing diamonds for jewellery in the lab is going for a turnkey solution including all processes along the production chain for roughs. Such modular expandable production cells are standardized, exclusive and unique.
Fast market access is essential
To fast-track the access to roughs from the lab, thus the participation in a rapidly growing market, operator models and contract production could be the entrance, also to bridge the time span until one really decides on setting up a vertically integrated own production line considering all the pros and cons. The main driver deciding for the fast track is the lack of expertise in farming diamonds. To get that, needs time. Time passing, while others take over the lead.
For applications other than jewellery tailored modifications of lab grown diamonds are of high future interest. Man-made diamonds modified to purpose can become of high interest for various future applications, e.g. as truly bio-inert material in the fast growing health care business as medical and dental implants, in the electronics and micro sensor sector, for micro-mechanics, as cutting blades, for quantum computing.
For such technical uses machines for research are available and will be specifically designed to purpose.