The Diamond Producers Association (DPA) plans to audit synthetics detectors to help the industry navigate its way around the broad choice of machines available on the market.
The group is laying the groundwork for an independent laboratory that will test diamond-screening devices currently sold in the market and publish its results to the trade. The marketing body aims to gather a committee of representatives from major industry organizations by the end of March to assess the scope of the program.
“This is a DPA initiative that responds to an obvious need that all in the trade recognize, and aims to do it in a concerted and efficient manner without duplication of work,” Jean-Marc Lieberherr, chief executive officer of the DPA (pictured), said in an email to Rapaport News.
At least five different companies or laboratories produce devices for screening diamonds, while the number of actual products is more than double that figure. Devices vary in terms of ease of use and the size of diamonds they can test, while the purchase prices range from $4,000 to $350,000, according to research by Surat-based DRC Techno, which itself produces three different screening machines.
