Antwerp Unveils Automated Diamond Polishing

RAPAPORT... Researchers in Antwerp have developed fully automatedpolishing technology that, they claim, will make the production process 10 to20 times faster. The new equipment, Fenix, will take an hour and a half tocarry out work that currently takes manufacturers a full day, the Antwerp WorldDiamond Centre (AWDC) said Monday. The Scientific and Technological ResearchCenter for Diamonds (WTOCD), a unit of the Belgian trade organization,developed the machine over 10 years. Diamond polishing has barely progressed since the 15thcentury, when Lodewijk van Bercken, a jeweler in Antwerp, discovered that onediamond was capable of polishing another one, the AWDC said. Even today, mostof the work is done by hand, making it difficult for the diamond hub to sustaina manufacturing sector due to high labor costs, the group explained. "This discovery fundamentally changes the diamond-polishingprocess," said Ari Epstein, CEO of the AWDC. "Today's wages simply make it tooexpensive to conduct this labor-intensive job in our country. Fenix puts an endto this, and can therefore be a real game changer for the Antwerp diamondindustry." Fenix is also more accurate than manual polishing, as ittakes into account each diamond's specific grain and crystal orientation, saidYves Kerremans, CEO of WTOCD. Various Antwerp-based diamond companies are testing thetechnology, which will be available to the public in September.