De Beers Lab Introduces Screening Device for Set Jewelry

Las Vegas--The International Institute of Diamond Grading & Research just introduced what it says is the first screening device for man-made diamonds that can test multiple stones in set jewelry at once.

The De Beers Group-owned lab, which has facilities in the U.K., India and Belgium, previewed the device at the recent JCK Las Vegas show.

Called SYNTHdetect, it uses IIDGR’s patented luminescence technology to screen diamonds of all sizes that already have been set in rings, earrings, bangles, brooches and necklaces.

The IIDGR’s Christopher Sanger said what sets the device apart is its ability to test multiple diamonds at once and not have to screen them one by one.

“If you had a ring with 300 melee stones in it, you could test them as one, rather than a probe, where you’d have to individually do each one,” he told National Jeweler via email. “This is the unique thing about this new instrument, and something no other can do.”

The IIDGR said that the referral rate for SYNTHdetect--meaning the number of natural (mined) diamonds that erroneously get referred for further testing--is 0.05 percent, the lowest in the industry. (As with other detection instruments, any stones that are referred should be submitted to a grading lab for further testing.)

Intended for back-office use by jewelry manufacturers and retailers, it is priced at $16,250.

The SYNTHdetect machine is slightly bigger than a PC and has a touch-screen monitor. It will be available for distribution in the fall.

The device is the latest in a line of second-generation detection instruments for man-made diamonds developed by IIDGR, following on the heels of the PhosView last year, which is designed to scan parcels of diamonds, and the AMS2 this spring, the updated version of its automated melee screener.

It also is the second man-made diamond screening device for set jewelry introduced by a major laboratory this year.

Back in April, the Gemological Institute of America unveiled a prototype of a machine that tests both mounted and unmounted diamonds to separate HPHT- and CVD-grown diamonds from mined stones.

The GIA’s device, which will be available by the end of the year and cost between $4,000 and $5,000, tests gems one by one using a spectroscopic probe to examine the fluorescence spectra of each stone. The lab said it refers 100 percent of man-made diamonds.

The IIDGR is taking orders for SYNTHdetect now, with deliveries beginning