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Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

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Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#341

Post by trissylegs »

agumonkey wrote: post #160
Animats wrote: post #105

That's a good article. The whole history is there. The commercial side has made huge progress, too. Look up "diamond making machine" on Alibaba. You can buy a high-pressure, high temperature six sided press for about US$200,000. A chemical vapor deposition machine is about the same price. De Beers, the diamond cartel, has an R&D operation, Element Six. They sell synthetic diamonds for lasers and other exotic applicat…

How will they maintain their jewelry business ? It feels like Sony CD-R drives in the Playstation era.

I think people will keep buying diamond jewelry with natural because it the product is sold as real/natural diamonds. Prestige is important for the high-end market and most of the price will be markup anyway. (Well diamonds are nearly all markup anyway).

Tiffany's isn't suddenly going to be cheaper.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#343

Post by hhh »

mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #124
Animats wrote: post #105

That's a good article. The whole history is there. The commercial side has made huge progress, too. Look up "diamond making machine" on Alibaba. You can buy a high-pressure, high temperature six sided press for about US$200,000. A chemical vapor deposition machine is about the same price. De Beers, the diamond cartel, has an R&D operation, Element Six. They sell synthetic diamonds for lasers and other exotic applicat…

This is certainly good news for lasers. Many people don't realize how good diamonds are for this. Transparent with a 65% higher refractive index than glass, and 8x the thermal conductivity of copper. And completely scratch-proof!

Diamond heat sinks inc?

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#344

Post by vladvasiliu »

Stedag wrote: post #324
chasil wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gorilla glass is already some percentage of "Prince Rupert's Drop" in strength. This is not sufficient? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Rupert%27s_drop

It’s definitely price performant at 6.5 on the mohs scale, sapphire panels are 2-4x more expensive to produce but 9 on the mohs scales so they’re typically only found in watches I bet. At a 10 on the mohs scale diamond is still best for hardness. Maybe the same effect of the prince Rupert’s drop could be induced on a round diamond with an alpha particle beam treatment where you add these ions primarily on the surface…

I'm not exactly a watch nerd, so don't know how true this is, but I hear that sapphire shatters on impact. Or maybe that's just an excuse for people peddling "alternative" materials for their watches?

But if it is true, then I'd say that sapphire is a poor choice for mobile phones. IME I'm far more likely to drop the phone, preferably on some form of hard surface, that to scratch it. Phones are nowadays so ridiculously big, that there's zero chance I'll have anything else in my pocket.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#345

Post by semi-extrinsic »

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #312
newZWhoDis wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just want solid diamond cookware. Wouldn’t a diamond skillet be incredibly non-stick, easy to clean, and totally non toxic?

I am actually.surprised you arent getting any responses With the current focus on PFOS and just amount of garbage materiel used to prepare our foods, I think some innovation is just around the corner.

> some innovation is just around the corner

It's already here! Stainless steel for pots, carbon steel for pans.

Once I got my first carbon steel pan (not cast iron) I knew it was game over for the teflon pans in my house. I'm now gradually replacing the teflon pans with carbon steel, and then I'll never have to replace another pan in my lifetime.

The upcoming PFAS ban in Europe will probably accelerate this transition greatly, unless DuPont et al have too much influence over politicians...

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#346

Post by kijin »

_yb2s wrote: post #331
kuschku wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've similarly experienced bad scratches whenever my phone and my keys come into contact, hardened steel may still be able to cause scratches?

This should not be possible with any type of modern phone screen. Do you perhaps have a plastic screen cover that is scratched? Or key metal could be deposited on the screen and just need to be scraped off

Depending on your location and lifestyle, your keys and other possessions can easily collect a dusting of tiny sand particles. Quartz in the sand can scratch most types of glass.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#348

Post by Animats »

namibj wrote: post #258
callalex wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if the process would be cheaper than the current high end (smart)watch and lens practice of sapphire coating?

No, it's substantially more expensive. At least for anything too large to just cut out of HPHT chunks, just due to CVD at optical grade being pretty slow.

Diamond coated glass is available and is sometimes used for checkout lane scanners.[1] It's not common.

[1] https://www.diamonex.com/wear-resistant-glass/

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#349

Post by Animats »

trissylegs wrote: post #339
nsteel wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are they not more popular as a material for heatsinks? Especially with those that like decorating the inside of the PC with fairy lights.

No for PC heatsink, but in 3d printing heat is really important for the nozzel. And a company makes them with Polycrystaline Diamond, which is harder than normal diamond. The company needed it themselves as the carbon fibre filament they were using kept wearing out heads. They though "Why don't we make our own heads". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96eFnTescoY

That makes sense. Dies for drawing fine wire have been made of diamond for most of a century. Seems like that's filtered down to 3D printers, which is a less demanding application.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#350

Post by object_Object »

indoordin0saur wrote: post #27

I'm planning on buying an engagement ring very soon and my own plan (as someone who has never done this before!) is to get a good lab grown diamond but spend more money on the metal in the ring. You can make a gem stone in a lab but until we become a Kardashev II civilization we won't be making any sufficient quantity of gold in a lab. If I buy a good loose lab grown diamond will I be able to find someone who will fi…

Yes, I did this with my wife, and it was a fantastic experience. She was able to design the ring exactly how she wanted, and working closely with the jeweller allowed us to ask all the right questions and get personalised advice.

You could also consider using a temporary ‘semi-set mount’ for the proposal. Then afterwards you could go to a jeweller and have them create the perfect ring to your specifications.

Now, 6 or 7 years my wife has a big birthday coming up and I’m considering a diamond pendant - when I bought the diamond for the engagement ring there was far fewer options but now there’s lots of places online. LooseGrownDiamond seems very competitive but if you find anywhere better priced I’d be interested!

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