Diamond, Ice!?

Diamonds were called“ice",engineers and physicists have long studied diamond. Even though the material is hard as an ice ball, diamond slips and slides with remarkably low friction. This makes it it an ideal material or coating for seals, even high performance tools and high-tech moving parts.

Standardization of Diamond Grading

The group of gemological experts representing organizations from around the world formed a Task Force which will propose an unprecedented scheme to be able to establish an international technical standards for diamond grading, including interlab comparisons.

This is from the initiative which was launched by the Accredited Gemologists Association, driven from the consumer dissatisfaction with inconsistent grades and a specific concern which current procedures used to color grade fluorescent diamonds that result in grades that are inaccurate, unscientific and misleading. The principal objective of it was to determine standard light sources for grading fluorescent diamonds, the discussions revealed that while the experts agreed that lighting standards must be re-examined, the urgent need for clearly defined technical procedures had went far beyond this.

The Task Force was able to determine the need to establish illumination standards and procedural guidelines for the lighting used in grading diamonds and gemstones and to be able to develop systems to ensure compliance among labs claiming to to established standards. This team will gather additional data on the broad area of lighting and its impact on diamond and gemstone grading, explore possible alternatives and carry out interlab comparison.

The AnchorCert Diamond Certification which is the division of The Birmingham Assay Office in the UK, has agreed to draft the protocol for “round robin” testing, and start the process with GCAL in New York.

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