Diamond expertise – Man v/s Machine: HK Diamonds sparkle through the hearts of our people, that no machine can ever bring…
Posted by Hari Krishna
November 5, 2020
After the industrial revolution, the manufacturing industry, in general, has benefited from various technological innovations.
The era was popularly called the ‘Man and Machine’ era, as during that time there was a symbiotic relationship between manual labor and machinery.
The conflict ‘Man v/s Machine’ arose in the information age, when Automation began to be used in every stage of manufacturing from simple stand-alone machines to highly complex processes.
Though, automated controlled systems helped drive out inefficiencies by reducing manual labor, increased and consistent production, and other advantages that otherwise wouldn’t be possible.
If we consider the diamond manufacturing industry, in particular, technological and automation advances helped geologists produce sparkling diamonds in a shorter time and more accurately.
Yet, can technology ever replace man in the diamond manufacturing industry? Before answering this question, let’s have a closer look at the diamond manufacturing process and the role of man and machine in it.
We all know that diamond cutting and polishing is an art, but very few people know that it is a science. Yes, it is.
Diamond manufacturing includes various scientific processes, including the study of the origin, nature, and characteristics of the stone. It plays a crucial part in deciding the type and way of cutting and polishing of the stone.
Although polished diamonds are highly used in the world of jewellery and aesthetics, they have the inherent sphere of art, mythology, and human behavior. That makes the whole process more than just a scientific pursuit.
If we trace diamond manufacturing throughout history, it’s been a man-driven profession. However, in the last few decades, the industry has seen a large involvement of technology and machinery in the process of diamond cutting and polishing.
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The development of advanced rough planning, cutting, and polishing technology has driven the diamond manufacturing industry to incredible heights of efficiency and precision. Let’s see how:
Let’s have a look at the role of Man and Machines in the whole process of diamond manufacturing:
• Planning
Diamond planning is a critical process, as the price of your polished diamond is highly dependent on the planning.
The diamond planners plan a rough diamond in such a way that maximum carat weight is retained in the polished stone and yields high profit, purely based on their knowledge, experience, and skills.
Today, various planning machines are available in the market including Galaxy, Sarine, Helium planning, etc.
They automatically give a 360-degree scanned image and video of the rough diamond with optimal yield from it and also give the option to do manual plotting.
However, these machines have their limitations, such as they are unable to plot on diamonds beyond the clarity grade VVS, i.e. FL and IF. For higher clarity grade rough, a skilled planner is required to plan it.
Another disadvantage of using a diamond planning machine is that it often fails to give optimum plans according to the type, size, and place of inclusions.
On the other hand, a skilled planner can efficiently plan any clarity grade diamonds based on the inclusions and their type to create maximum value.
• Sawing
Sawing is the first step of rough diamond cutting, hence very critical. It is done by Laser machines, Waterjet cutting machines, etc., other than humans.
Beyond the accurate cutting, sawing demands human intervention to judge the post-sawing condition of rough diamonds before actually starting the process. As human intellect can prevent any possibility of breakage or weight loss.
Nevertheless, sawing machines are fully automated, once the process starts. So, you can’t see/avoid any breakage or weight loss of rough diamond beyond estimated before the diamond comes out. That is the riskier part of using a machine for sawing.
• Blocking
The blocking process is removing the unwanted part from the rough stone after sawing and shaping it near to the final shape.
To some extent, it is the manual job of giving nearby shape with maximum weight gain and avoiding any possible chances of breakage to the rough stone.
However, nowadays, bruting machines are used for blocking, but they are riskier as the chances of cracking/breakage in rough diamonds are higher than usual in these auto machines.
• Polishing
In polishing, the diamond gets its final shape and faceting. Polishing can increase or decrease the value of your diamond, which is why it is a very crucial and much-focused job.
Even today, the polishing of diamonds is primarily a man-driven job. Though there is a simple polishing mill available in the market, it just gives the mechanical support to polish the diamond.
To manufacture an excellent diamond in terms of symmetry, polish, and cut, requires a highly skilled person with much patience and accuracy.
However, in the past few years, several institutions in the industry, after years of research, have successfully innovated a revolutionary technology that fully automates the diamond polishing process.
Thus, we can expect the fully automated diamond cutting and polishing procedure in the near future.
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• Grading
Diamond grading involves judging and rating all the specifications of the diamond, including 4Cs, fluorescence, luster, fire, etc.
Again, Diamond grading is primarily a man-driven process. There are not any standard machines to grade the diamond, but just like the diamond polishing process, we can soon expect the automated diamond grading system.
Diamond graders are the highly-skilled people who can easily grade diamond color, clarity, and cut, polish, symmetry just with the help of a microscope to magnify its size.
Looking at the current scenario of the role of man and machine in the diamond manufacturing process, some may argue that the current scenario is best represented as ‘Man and a machine’ rather than ‘Man v/s machine’.
Well, we believe it’s a ‘Man with a Machine.’ Let’s see how:
We don’t deny the fact that technology has driven huge strides in the advancement of the diamond manufacturing industry in terms of perfection of cut measurements and standardization.
However, machines function on the concept of repeatability & accuracy from analyzing tons of stones and automatically detect the color, clarity, and carat of the diamond.
Well, we should not forget that every natural diamond is unique and so does its cutting method. Here, these automated machines might fail or need a human expert.
As the automated control systems are simply too complex to take into account every possible scenario that might be encountered in real-time.
Apart from all this, Diamonds are not just precious gemstones, they are deeply connected to expressing human emotions of love, commitment, social status, and so on. Want to know how? – Click Here
Such abilities to put those values in the stone are invaluable human skills that can only be learned over time and no technology can ever compensate or duplicate that understanding in automated machines.
That’s the reason why we believe neither the ‘Man and Machine’ nor the ‘Man v/s Machine’ but the ‘Man with Machine’ is the ideal model to manufacture exceptional diamonds.
As even the successful automated solutions involve more than just hardware and software, it’s the human component that captures the strengths of both.
And in the diamond industry, humans will always remain an essential part of the manufacturing process, it’s just a harmonious balance between both that will strive the market.
As a leading diamond manufacturer and exporter in the industry, we feel honored for having extraordinary talents in our manufacturing unit, who can beat the machines in optimum planning of the rough diamond, sharp cutting with exceptional symmetry, excellent polishing, and accurate grading.
Looking for such sparkling diamonds to buy? – Click Here to register for the hk.co online store and buy perfect simmering diamonds!
Also, our manufacturing process is designed in such a way that they can utilize their talent and produce eternal beauty of scintillating diamonds.
Have a look at – How our diamond manufacturing process delivers Diamonds with a Heart?
