The company has invested significantly in establishing an active and functional state of the art laboratory, which conducts the following processes:
- Classification - The equipment used includes typical laboratory equipment (balances, stirrers, hot plates, pH-meters etc.) as well as sophisticated devices such as IR spectrometers, UV-Vis spectrophotometers, high pressure / vacuum units and gemological equipment.
- Various Treatment Procedures - These procedures are used in order to produce enhanced fancy diamonds. The laboratory has several ovens (for any thermal treatment needed, with temperatures ranging from 400°C-3000°C) and access to irradiation treatments if and when necessary.
Furthermore, the lab’s equipment is capable of transforming the current air into any atmosphere required as well as enable work in a vacuum environment.
- Applied Research - The lab conducts applied research as part of perfecting current procedures and obtaining new and additional procedures.
- Determining and Developing New Enhanced Fancy Colors - This process refers to the determining and development stage of the various colors as well as the testing of the thermal effects on the enhanced colors’ durability. Various procedures have been developed in the lab in order to produce the desired color, based on the specific nature of the stone being treated.
- Development of Several Classification Methods - The development of different methods for classifying diamonds that are suitable for the enhancement processes.
In addition to all of these procedures, experiments with clarity improvements in Type IIa stones and color enhancements in Type I stones through combined chemical / thermal treatments are carried out in the laboratory. As mentioned earlier, the laboratory is outfitted with standard chemical laboratory equipment, but also has high temperature ovens with medium / high pressure installations (up to 300At), vacuum equipment, as well as the ability to expose diamonds to extreme conditions. Spectroscopic equipment, which is used especially for diamond classification, operates in the laboratory. However, certain additional techniques are conducted elsewhere.
The companies that partner with Dianer Diamonds Ltd. in terms of the equipment include Thermo, Bruker Optics, and Varian for general equipment, Pfeiffer and Agilent for spectroscopic equipment, and Entech, Adam Mandel, Fischer, and Emerytherm for thermal equipment. The chemicals needed are supplied by Sigma Aldrich Israel. Irradiations are carried out at Shaar Hagolan Ltd., Sorek Res. Ctr. and Nuc. Res. Ctr. Negev, and The Israel Atomic Energy Commission provides the radiation certification.
