Element Six the world leader in synthetic diamond supermaterials, and member of the De Beers Group of Companies, is delighted to announce that it has been shortlisted for The Manufacturer of the Year Awards 2013, Innovation and Design category.

Walter Huehn, Element Six CEO commented:

"We are very pleased to be shortlisted for this award, which is testament to our continuous commitment to developing ground-breaking innovation in synthetic diamond supermaterials. Through innovation we are proud to enable our customers to deliver extreme leaps in end-application performance and productivity."

In July of this year Element Six strengthened its commitment to delivering step-change innovation by opening the world's largest and most sophisticated synthetic diamond and supermaterials research and development facility.

The �20m Element Six Global Innovation Centre (GIC) at Harwell, near Oxford, reinforces Element Six's position as the world-leader in synthetic diamond and supermaterial research. Employing more than 110 expert scientists, engineers and technicians, the centre will develop a pipeline of innovative synthetic diamond and related supermaterial products for customers, in industries from oil and gas drilling to precision machining and electronics.

Element Six has a 50 year, world-leading track record of applying the extreme properties of synthetic diamond within abrasive applications and a diverse range of advanced technologies. Synthetic diamond, an advanced manufacturing material, can improve productivity, reduce energy consumption and enable leaps in technology never previously considered in a multitude of applications.

Recent innovative products range from a synthetic diamond tipped road-pick that has become game-changing due to a lifespan 40 times that of a normal road pick; synthetic diamond tweeter domes for Bower & Wilkins 800 Series Diamond loudspeakers, the winner of The Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation in 2012; and sensors used in the Large Hadron Collider helping to discover the Higgs boson. The diverse range of applications harnesses the unique properties of diamond to deliver extreme performance.

The winners of the Innovation and Design category will be announced at The Manufacturer of The Year Awards ceremony on the 4th December, 2013.