Home Grown CVD Diamonds

[Goldfinger1]

Will the CVD process ever be computerized and miniaturized to the point where lab grown diamonds can be produced in one's own home with minimal knowledge?

 

[DejaWiz]

Will the CVD process ever be computerized and miniaturized to the point where lab grown diamonds can be produced in one's own home with minimal knowledge?

Doubtful. Based on what I've researched and learned, it needs upwards of 10,000 *continuous* watts of power to create the plasma and operate until the rough is grown to the desired size, then the chances are high that it may need the assistance of HPHT equipment to improve color and clean up clarity.
And then there is the cutting and polishing equipment and skills needed to produce a finished diamond in whatever desired shape as the final outcome.

 

[Goldfinger1]

Doubtful. Based on what I've researched and learned, it needs upwards of 10,000 *continuous* watts of power to create the plasma and operate until the rough is grown to the desired size, then the chances are high that it may need the assistance of HPHT equipment to improve color and clean up clarity.
And then there is the cutting and polishing equipment and skills needed to produce a finished diamond in whatever desired shape as the final outcome.

Thanks for the reply.

I was watching an old Twilight Zone episode where gold pretty much becomes worthless in the future. Thought perhaps the same thing could happen with diamonds due to mass production using CVD process.

 

[DejaWiz]

Thanks for the reply.

I was watching an old Twilight Zone episode where gold pretty much becomes worthless in the future. Thought perhaps the same thing could happen with diamonds due to mass production using CVD process.

In my opinion, most CVD is already worthless due to bad crystal quality because of the "quantity over quality" that a majority of the CVD growers across the globe have adopted, especially in the wake of COVID with governments subsidizing more growers to come online in countries including China and India.
That doesn't even include the fast and sloppy cutting and polishing "good enough" approach that aligns with their mindset to crank them out like they're in a race to the bottom.

 

[Goldfinger1]

I'm an old rock hound who understands the various grades of diamonds. Wouldn't the various grading systems determine the quality,cut and polish of each stone? After all a diamond is a diamond and any imperfections should show up as grades within that particular system.

I'm kind of fascinated with the technology used to grow diamonds via CVD. Who would have ever thunk it?

 

[DejaWiz]

I'm an old rock hound who understands the various grades of diamonds. Wouldn't the various grading systems determine the quality,cut and polish of each stone? After all a diamond is a diamond and any imperfections should show up as grades within that particular system.

I'm kind of fascinated with the technology used to grow diamonds via CVD. Who would have ever thunk it?

Material quality is not taken into account when a diamond is assessed for and assigned a clarity grade by almost every grading lab. It should be, but it isn't.

From what we've gathered, the labs largely don't care about graining or stria that usually presents with CVD grown diamonds (or Type IIb/boron impurities or even other impurities that alter the body color and appearance of some poorly grown HPHT diamonds), so they only check for other types of characteristics and inclusions to base the clarity grades on.

We must always assume that any lab/human grown diamond has had its material quality completely ignored by the grading lab when it was given a clarity grade.
Treat them as separate metrics:
1. Clarity grade (assessed by the grading labs) - growth remnants, needles, pinpoints, crystals, isolated clouds, etc.
2. Crystal material quality (ignored by the grading labs) - graining, stria, planar clouding, color nuances, etc.

 

[Goldfinger1]

I know General Electric started synthesizing HTHP diamonds back in the 1950's.

Who and when did they discover the CVD process for synthesizing diamonds?

 

[DejaWiz]

I know General Electric started synthesizing HPHT diamonds back in the 1950's.

Who and when did they discover the CVD process for synthesizing diamonds?

That's a good question, and one that I don't have an answer to. It could have been around the same time as HPHT:

https://www.gia.edu/news-research-CVD-grown-part1

 

[Goldfinger1]

If that's true, I wonder how come it took so long to develop that process? It seems to seems to me CVD has only been around for 10 or 15 years or so. Unless my memory is faulty, I don't recall ever seeing anything about the CVD process until perhaps 2010 to 2015. Maybe even later.

 

[DejaWiz]

If that's true, I wonder how come it took so long to develop that process? It seems to seems to me CVD has only been around for 10 or 15 years or so. Unless my memory is faulty, I don't recall ever seeing anything about the CVD process until perhaps 2010 to 2015. Maybe even later.

It took just as long to refine HPHT to produce gemstone/jewelry grade diamonds.