Diamond Services Ltd., a Hong Kong-based diamond, gem and jewelry industry technology solution firm, is launching what it says is a "new, accessible and affordable technology that will significantly lower the threshold for diamond companies to screen for synthetic diamonds - both loose and mounted".



Yossi Kuzi, owner of Diamond Services, said that the new screening technology is based on laser optics. "We have developed a device… with a 100% success rate. We have run tests on batches of up to a 1,000 stones - HPHT and CVD - with complete success," Kuzi stated.



"There are several, rather expensive, instruments available in the market that help separate natural diamonds from their synthetic counterparts. The screening methods of these instruments are invariably based on the assumption that all synthetic diamonds belong to the Type IIa category, and on these tools' ability to measure the fluorescence of the diamonds," Kuzi noted.



"However, recently the industry was confronted with synthetic diamonds that belong to the Type IaAB category, which cannot be detected by means of fluorescence measurements. This, for all practical purposes, means that the instruments that currently serve gem labs and the industry at large have become, if not obsolete, at least less reliable," he stated.



The new screening system will be launched at the Hong Kong March show and will be available thereafter via service stations worldwide, starting in Hong Kong and Israel.