Diamond Synthesis paves the way

The industrial diamond industry can definitely be described as innovative because it has advanced rapidly by technological means on two fronts - the emergence of new products, like polycrystalline diamond or synthetic monocrystals on the one hand and the development of new applications on the other. These two processes have in general gone hand in hand, sometimes one leading, sometimes the other, but never too far separated in their impact upon industry.

Today, industrial diamond is available in vast quantities, types and shapes, tailored to the individual application with the annual consumption constantly increasing. It was once said that for every automobile which rolled off the assembly lines at Detroit, one and a half carats of industrial diamond were consumed - whether or not this figure can be justified accurately is open to debate - but today the use of industrial diamond has grown into a high volume industry and in 2003 more than 300 tons of industrial diamond were consumed around the world.

Overall we estimate the market value of diamond tools sold today to be worth several billion dollars, and the construction industry, together with stone processing represents almost half that market. When we look into the applications ranging from petroleum exploration through mining and drilling, sawing natural stones and concrete, machining abrasive non-ferrous materials and wood composites, grinding glass and ceramics, to such apparently unlikely fields as cutting spaghetti and frozen foods, it becomes clear, that industrial diamond, although mostly invisible, became over time part of everybody's life.