Diamond is the hardest substance known to man.  

Diamond, one of the world’s most important mineral resources, is pure natural carbon with atoms organized in a close packed cubic arrangement that gives the stones their hardness. The external forms of natural diamond crystals shows the same symmetry (Isometric System). The commercial crystal form is the Octahedron, which looks like two four sided pyramids placed base to base.

Because diamond is so much harder than any other natural or artificial substance known, it is ideal for both gem and industrial purpose. Special optical properties guarantee it’s pre-eminence among gems. First, its high refractive index (2.417), or light bending ability, enables it to throw back almost all the light that enters a well-cut gem. This gives rise to the gems brilliant, or adamantine, luster. Secondly, it exhibits strong dispersion (0.058), or the ability to separate the various colors of the spectrum. This causes the gem to throw back the bright flashes of separated colours (“fire”) for which it is particularly noted. 

Industrial Uses: 

Industry uses most uncut diamonds. Diamond-studded rotary bits are used to drill oil wells and bore tunnels in solid rock. Much low-grade diamond is crushed to dust, sorted by grain size through, special sieves, and used as abrasive powder. Depending on the kind of abrasion or grinding needed, the powder is either sintered in to metal discs, formed in carbide grinding wheels, pressed into metal, or mixed in an oil paste. The powder is also used to cut and polish gems. Diamond- tipped glasscutters, glass-etching pencils, and other similar tools find widespread use. Very thin wire is formed, by pulling thick wire through a graduated series of diamonds with tiny holes drilled through them. Diamonds for industrial purposes have been synthesized since the 1950s using high-temperature, high-pressure techniques, and since the 1960s using shock-wave techniques. (Gem Quality Diamonds can also be synthesized, but the process is costly).

Technological uses for diamonds were expanded in the late 1980s by the development of methods for depositing diamond coating on surfaces. Such uses include the coating of integrated circuits as a whole instead of having to cool the components of the circuits individually. The coating may also be used in prosthetic devises and bio-sensors.  

Mining and Production: 

Diamonds occur in two general types of deposits: volcanic pipes through which molten rock - Kimberlite, now cooled and hardened - rose up from deep within the earth, and alluvial, or placer, deposits, which were formed by the erosion of diamond pipes over millions of years. 

The earliest productive mines were in the Golconda region of India, particularly along the Krishna River. After 1725 this mining district was gradually eclipsed in importance by the diamond deposits of Brazil. Diamonds were first mined there along the Jequitinhonha River, in the Diamantina area of Minas Gerais. 

In 1867 a 21carat stone was discovered on the banks of the Orange River near Hopetown, South Africa. A great diamond rush started and new deposits were discovered that were more productive than any, the world had ever known. Another major diamond resource was developed in the Yakutia Region of Soviet Union. By the 1980s the Yakutia and South African regions and the country of Zaire dominated the world’s diamond market. The mineral has also been found in smaller amounts in numerous other places. In the United States the leading producers include Arizona, Nevada, and Montana, although, the largest gemstones have been found in an eroded volcanic pipe in Pike country, Ark. 

Electroplated Diamond Tools:

There are two main types of diamond tools that exist in the market. Metal Bond technology tools and Electro-bond technology tools. 

Metal bonded diamond tools are “impregnated” with diamonds. This means that selected diamonds are mixed and sintered with specific metal alloys to achieve the best cutting performance possible on any materials such as sapphire, glass, granite, tile and etc. The metal bond surrounding the diamonds must wear away to continuously keep re-exposing the diamonds for the diamond tool to continue cutting. 

Electro-bonded or Electro-plated diamond tools on the other hand have a high diamond concentration and give a freer and faster drilling and cutting action with minimum heat generation. They are more economic and have high precision cutting properties. Diamond particles are electro-bonded to the tip of the tool. The high diamond concentration ensures faster and free cutting.