Properties

Diamond's unique properties
Diamond exhibits a large number of extreme properties, which individually or in combination make it the best performer in a whole range of industrial applications:

• Chemical: It is chemically insert.
• Mechanical: It is the hardest material known to man.
• Electrical: It has certain high performance electrical properties.
• Optical: It has unmatched optical transparency across the widest spectrum.
• Thermal: It is the most thermally conductive material.

Diamond's versatility
Diamond can be used for so many fundamentally different applications because of its unique properties and because it is available in so many different formats.
This versatility is mainly due to the different synthesis techniques that are presently employed which enable a diamond product to be tailored to match a specific application.

High pressure/ high temperature synthesis produces diamond grit particles in sizes and characteristics that cater for all the many different abrasive applications - grinding, sawing and drilling. PCD discs are also synthesised with this method to provide raw material for cutting tools and drill products. As an industrial abrasive, diamond is involved in a wide range of industries including stone, construction, metalworking, glass, electronics, wood-working and oil and gas drilling.

CVD synthesis produces coated and free standing diamond products in the most complex of shapes and in specific grades to exploit diamond's optical, thermal or electrical properties. This newer technology is expanding the use of diamond within the non- abrasive fields, where the range is also very diverse and includes components for uses such as optical windows, thermal devices, high performance electronic parts and medical instrumentation.

Download a Technical Specification of Diamonds (Word Document 163KB)