Laser Cutting Transforms Diamond Processing Industry

Diamonds are one of the most precious and loved materials of all. Every natural diamond was formed long before dinosaurs roamed on Earth, with the youngest diamond believed to be about 900 million years old and the oldest about 3.2 billion. At present, around 80% of rough diamonds are obtained from mines located in Botswana, South Africa, Russia, Angola, Namibia, Australia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Rough diamonds are sorted on the basis of their natural characteristics, like shape, size, color, cut-ability, and quality, before being used as industrial diamonds or as gem diamonds. They pass through a series of processes, including planning and marking, cleaving or sawing, bruting or girding, and polishing. Another manual process was kerfing of the marked rough stone, wherein the sharp edge of a diamond was used to cut the stone. With the invention of some advanced tools, sawing or cleaving was done by diamond powder-coated blades. Bruting is the process in which two diamonds are set on opposite axels and their vigorous rotation gives a rough shape to pre-planned stone. The final stage involves making different facets and polishing the diamond.

How laser diamond cutting works

First, the rough diamond is measured and an AI-assisted planning process then guides the user for optimal yield from the diamond. Then, it obtains a clear picture regarding the weight, shape, and clarity of the proposed polished diamond. Specialized software gives the operator options to select the shape of the diamond, depending on elimination of inclusions, and displays its market value onscreen. In the next step, the numbers of sides and percentage of sawing and banding are selected, enabling optimal safety and finalizing minimum weight loss. The operator clicks a button and the perfect laser sawing gets started. After completion of the above process, the next step is to cut the rough diamond according to the plan. Laser cutting machines from Sahajanand Technologies are among the most preferred machines for this job, as these are compatible with former planning machines. These laser cutting machines take care of the sawing, shaping, blocking, and 4-in-1 process (a.k.a. 4P), and cut pre-planned rough diamonds (FIGURE 2). The final result is always appreciable compared to what one gets from the conventional method of diamond planning and cutting.

The notable features of laser-equipped diamond planning and cutting machines are:

1. They are highly precise, accurate, and repeatable;
2. They are great time-savers as a single planning machine, and up to five machines can be used in line to increase productivity;
3. They reduce the requirement of scarcely available skilled manpower due to user-friendliness and easy operation;
4. They reduce human errors to almost zero;
5. They reduce overall material loss during cutting to 1% or less compared to 8% with conventional methods; and
6. They are highly robust and require very low maintenance cost.