New technology grades symmetry of diamonds

Kfar Saba, Israel--Challenged to provide a solution for Tiffany & Co., Sarine Technologies has developed a system that grades round and fancy-shaped polished diamonds to determine the stones’ symmetry and proportions, technology that will be available to other companies in the industry. 

Called DiaMension Axiom, the automated system uses microscopic magnification and advanced video imagery analysis to grade a polish diamond’s facet symmetry, Sarine said, a feature that typically is evaluated manually by gemologists using microscopes.

Specifically, the technology measures facet junctions, misalignments and distortions, all of which play into the overall symmetry grade of a diamond. 

“This new technology developed by Sarine will…efficiently measure and uphold our demanding symmetry standard, which is critical to ensuring Tiffany presents only the most beautiful diamonds to our customers,” said Andy Hart, Tiffany’s senior vice president of manufacturing, diamonds and gemstones.

New York-based Tiffany & Co. in 2011 tapped Sarine to provide the company with a method of measuring diamond symmetry with high accuracy. The patent-pending DiaMension Axiom developed for Tiffany meets the retail giant’s specific symmetry requirements, but the technology will become available to additional manufacturers and gemological institutes so that they may attain “new levels of quality,” Sarine said.

“DiaMension Axiom is not exclusive to Tiffany, and the system will be available to the general public,” Sarine Technologies Chief Operating Officer David Block told National Jeweler. 

When asked if there will be a specific scale or nomenclature that will be used to express these new grading standards, Block said standards for symmetry generally are set by different grading labs or other bodies, such as Tiffany.

“Sarine works closely with all relevant parties to implement these grading standards into our system so they can be used by the diamond community,” he said. “These standards are not only implemented in our polish grading systems such as the DiaMension Axiom, but also into the manufacturing systems…to enable them to manufacture polish(ed) diamonds to the highest standards.”