DRC REVELATIONS
The Newsletter of Lab-Grown Diamond Detection
Welcome to our newsletter. Over ten million carats of laboratory grown diamonds were produced in the last few years. Undisclosed LGD show up everywhere. Knowledge plus the right technology is the answer. The best way to screen for LGD’s is to have a robust, technology-based review that involves scientific analysis, process engineering, and robust support.
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Why everyone in our industry needs a plan for identifying laboratory grown diamonds
Customers trust your integrity and expertise. Today, CVD and HPHT lab-grown diamonds are everywhere in all sizes, shapes, colours, and clarities. If your business involves making, selling, repairing, or appraising anything with diamonds, it’s essential to protect yourself now. You are expected to identify the differences between natural and lab-grown diamonds. You need a comprehensive plan, a clear process, and a firm policy to safeguard your business.
No one in our industry is immune from risk—whether it’s an actual disaster or a near miss. Every day brings fresh accounts of unexpected mishaps or outright fraud. The next incident could involve your business.
Millions of carats of lab-grown diamonds have been manufactured, and not all are honestly represented. Their presence is increasingly difficult to detect. As a result, they are often discovered in factories, unscanned parcels, or even the hands of consumers who may be unaware of what they have purchased.
It all comes down to Truth in Advertising: how you present and describe the products you sell. Consumers have a legal right to accurate information about their purchases. But this is impossible without fully understanding what your store is selling.
The responsibility falls on you and your business. Your customers rely on you and your business as the expert who knows the difference. Ultimately, you are liable for the accuracy of what you sell. To operate responsibly in today’s market, every jeweller and manufacturer must have the following:
1. A Policy:
What is your policy regarding the diamonds you sell? How do you describe them to customers as you sell, repair, or appraise them?
2. A Procedure:
What processes do you have in place for handling merchandise, including:
- Incoming inventory
- Repairs (both incoming and outgoing)
- Purchasing diamonds from private sellers
3. Technology:
The only reliable way to identify lab-grown diamonds is through scientific instruments. Make sure your business is equipped with the necessary tools.
Lab-grown diamonds bring with them liability even if you’re benefiting from selling them in the short term. Because they are visually identical, the opportunities for confusion and mistakes leave you vulnerable. New inventory can and often does have lab-grown diamonds “accidentally” contaminating natural diamond jewelry. Dealing with repairs can introduce a new level of anxiety.
You and your business are legally responsible to the consumer. They expect perfection from you with their new purchases, repairs, and appraisals. The buck stops with you and the results, as always, go right to your bottom line. It’s your reputation and legacy.
You need to know the origin of every diamond: natural or lab grown. It’s not just your legal obligation. It is the foundation of trust that you work to build every day with your customers.
Trust is the cornerstone of the jewelry industry and your business. If customers realize that you cannot identify a $10,000 natural diamond from a $500 lab grown stone, their trust and their business will disappear.
What Undisclosed
Synthetics mean to your business?
You pay for security systems to safeguard your inventory and insurance to cover your business. You must have a sophisticated device to identify diamonds. Probes are not enough.
You need a device that can scan multiple stones at once and a device that keeps a history to answer questions if there is a future issue.
To minimize the risk, every jeweler needs a diamond identification device that is effective and updated regularly in response to changes in lab grown diamond development. It is just good business sense.
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Geologically Speaking
GCAL talks LGD
GCAL by Sarin is a leading gemological laboratory in the United States and the only one ISO certified.
Because lab-grown diamonds are chemically, optically, and physically identical to natural diamonds, the detection, especially in set diamond jewelry, has become the greatest challenge the industry has faced in decades. In combination with the mass production and known infiltration into the natural mined diamond supply chain, all stakeholders in the jewelry industry have a responsibility to implement a testing protocol.
Retailers will be held accountable by the public and courts of law for selling diamond jewelry containing lab-grown diamonds or simulants without disclaimer or disclosure. GCAL’s diamond jewelry identification service goes a step beyond the Screening Service to provide conclusive results instead of a ‘refer’.
DRC Solutions respond to
Real world needs
Identifying loose or mounted? Need to check thousands of mounted diamonds at once? Need a secure record of each scan to protect your liability?
DRC (Diamtech Research Centre), over the last ten years, has examined thousands of carats of CVD and HPHT lab-grown diamonds because we’re close to its production in Surat, India. Today, DRC’s three machines all do an excellent job at accurately identifying CVD and HPHT identification for inventory, repair verification or purchasing functions. They are an essential part of every jewelers’ arsenal for inventory, financial and reputational assurance.
Questions and Answers
Ask us your questions about laboratory grown diamonds, from gemological to operational in your store or manufacturing facility. We have the global resources and experience to sensibly respond with straightforward answers.
Question: Which is the best diamond identification device in the market?
Answer: It depends on your business and what you are prepared invest in time and money. A mini-raman spectrometer is likely the most accurate of all devices.
But be prepared to spend lots of money for the components and a GG for its operation and results interpretation. It’s a very sophisticated instrument. It’s not fast. Stones need to be loose and you need to have a tank of liquid nitrogen on hand. But there are many other choices depending on your requirements. Look for our next newsletter for hints on what to look for in a diamond screening device.
Send your questions to USA@DRCIndia.IN
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DIAMOND IDENTIFICATION TECHNOLOGY
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David Skuza
USA
www.drcindia.in
usa@drcindia.in
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