Introduction
A diamond is an incredibly hard and durable stone made up of a single element, carbon. It’s one of the most popular gemstones in the world today, with global diamond jewelry sales totaling over 80 billion dollars annually.
Beyond its use in expensive jewelry however, diamonds can have many other uses. Here are 2 common ways diamonds are used outside of jewelry:
1. Industrial – Diamonds can be cut into extremely fine consistencies to be used for industrial purposes such as saw blades for various cutting or drilling jobs. Its strength and hardness makes it ideal for this purpose as it is able to open even the toughest and largest materials with ease. For instance, large diamonds are often seen utilized to open oil pipelines and jet engines.
2. Medicine – Diamonds play a role in medical research and technology too; they are used to create medical equipment such as MRI and X-ray machines which are essential components in hospitals across the world that aid in diagnosing patients quickly and accurately. They help to reduce radiation exposure by producing high quality images with low doses of radiation, making these forms of medical scanning procedures much more safe than before.
Industrial Uses
Industrial Uses: Diamonds are a key material used in many industries. In manufacturing, diamonds may be used as an abrasive to cut and shape materials like glass and ceramics, as well as other metals like aluminum and steel. Industrial diamonds can also be crushed into dust or powder form to be used for lubricants, grinding wheels, polishing compounds, and other finishing applications. Furthermore, diamond-tipped tools are frequently utilised for drilling hard materials such as granite or marble.
Technology Uses: Diamonds have various uses in technology too because of their incredibly high refractive index compared to other materials. Computer chip production is a major application for synthetic diamonds as they offer excellent electrical insulation properties; diamond optical coatings are also commonly applied on lenses, windows, sensors and integrated circuits due to the incredible clarity of diamonds and their low scattering properties. Diamonds are also widely used to aid thermal conductivity – usually through their incorporation into heat transfer liquids.
Medical Uses: Beyond jewelry use cases and industrial applications, diamonds play an important role in medical processes such as the development of lasers designed specifically for surgery or the imaging of human tissue layers down to cellular levels. For example, synthetic diamonds can be implemented into sensors that monitor non-invasive oxygen saturation and pulse rates from the blood vessels close to skin surfaces using light signals that pass through blood vessels without having any physical contact with the patient’s body itself . Additionally, nanoscale diamond particles are being utilized in drug delivery systems by harnessing the surface targeting methods contained within them.
Conservation Uses
1. Diamond coating on lenses of weather satellites can help monitor long-term climate change to aid in conservation efforts.
2. Grit-blasting with diamond particles is useful for restoration of ancient artifacts, allowing archaeologists to preserve their pieces and discover more about the past.
Abrasive Uses
Aside from its use as a precious gem in jewelry, diamonds have a variety of industrial uses due to their unique properties. For instance, diamonds are the hardest known natural material, and they hold an edge longer than any other substance. This makes them ideal for abrasive tools such as cutting blades, saws, and grinding wheels that require long-lasting sharpness and durability.
Besides cutting and grinding tools, diamond abrasives are also used in polishing jewelry. A diamond paste can be applied to a polishing wheel during the jewelry making process in order to create a smooth mirror-like finish on jewelry pieces. Jewelers will sometimes also choose to set small faceted diamonds into their designs to add color and sparkle.
That being said, the raw industrial grade diamonds used in abrasive tools and for polishing jewelry differ from those used in fine jewelry settings due to their clarity and size. Industrial grade diamonds aretypically opaque or cloudy with many imperfections throughout the stone since they often come from huge rock formations and need no further cutting or shaping. Large stones of one carat or more can serve as abrasive tools while small chips of diamond powder may weigh even less than one tenth of a carat without sacrificing quality or effectiveness when it comes to polishing jewelry.
Gemology for Collectors
1) Industrial Use: Diamonds are valued for their extreme strength and so they have a plethora of industrial uses. The main applications include being used as cutting tools (for example in diamond-tipped drill bits), abrasive polishers, masonry saws, and specialty grinding wheels. Because diamonds can withstand intense forces and temperatures, they have a wide range of applications in manufacturing processes including machining, drilling and lathing metals.
2) Science & Technology: As diamonds are incredibly hard, they have several scientific and technological uses too. Recent research has found that nanoscale diamond particles can be used to measure angles with high accuracy due to diamond’s lattice structure and thus they are often used in microscopes to precisely position samples or images under the microscope. They have also become extremely useful in medical fields such as cancer treatment where tiny diamond particles can be used in proton therapy instead of natural radiation.
Conclusion
Diamonds are known primarily as a precious gem, adorning the jewelry of individuals around the world. However, diamonds have an incredible range of various practical applications in the modern world. Diamonds have been used for industrial tools due to their singular hardness and scratch resistance. When extracted from ore, diamonds can be manufactured into countless blades, wheels and drill bits used in optical SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) systems, surface finishing and infrastructure construction.
In addition to industrial uses such as grinding and machining materials, diamonds also possess unique properties that make them suitable for multiple other uses. Until recently, diamonds were often employed as a semiconductor material for electronics applications such as transistors and diodes. Because of their physical properties regarding temperature resistance, diamond-based electronic components are now being incorporated into higher-powered computer processors; they are consistently proving results with less failure than traditional silicon counterparts. Lastly, cultured diamonds have been used to synthesize tougher armor plates found on aircrafts; these plates offer enhanced protection without introducing additional weight or slowing down aircraft maneuvers significantly.
In conclusion, this discussion has highlighted some of the most innovative and diverse ways that diamonds are being used in today’s industries ranging from IT and electronics to manufacturing centers and defense operations. While diamonds will likely remain known as a desired gemstone throughout time due to its aesthetic appeal and market value, it is also clear that this incredibly tough material has many potential practical applications both now and in the future that can not be ignored.
Welcome to my jewelry blog! My name is Sarah and I am the owner of this blog.
I love making jewelry and sharing my creations with others.
So whether you’re someone who loves wearing jewelry yourself or simply enjoys learning about it, be sure to check out my blog for insightful posts on everything related to this exciting topic!
