Views: 65 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2024-08-13 Origin: Site
There is a saying in the artificial diamond industry: "The world looks to China for diamonds, and China looks to Henan for diamonds." This is true. Data from the Superhard Materials Branch of the China Machine Tool Industry Association show that my country's artificial diamond production currently accounts for 95% of the world's total production, while Henan's artificial diamond production accounts for 80% of the country's total. In the workshop of Shangqiu City Zhecheng County Power Diamond Co., Ltd., rows of six-sided top presses are running quietly, and the internal temperature is as high as 1600℃, like a small volcano. The graphite columns placed in between can "grow" high-purity diamond rough stones of more than 1 carat after two or three weeks of high temperature and high pressure. Diamond is a mineral composed of carbon elements. It is an allotrope of graphite and the original body of common diamonds. Graphite can form artificial diamonds under high temperature and high pressure. Artificial diamonds have the same excellent properties as natural diamonds, such as superhardness, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance. They are high-efficiency, high-precision, semi-permanent, and environmentally friendly advanced inorganic non-metallic materials. They are the core consumables for the production of tools for sawing, cutting, grinding, and drilling of hard, brittle, and difficult-to-process materials. They are widely used in precision cutting tools, wear-resistant devices, semiconductors and electronic devices, low-magnetic detection, optical windows, acoustic applications, biomedicine, and jewelry, and enjoy the reputation of "King of Materials".
"Compared with natural diamonds, artificial diamonds are like 'ice in the river' and 'ice in the refrigerator', with almost no difference." The relevant person in charge of Power Diamond introduced that the company can currently produce a maximum of tens of carats of artificial diamond rough stones.
"Zhecheng is known as the 'diamond capital'. In the past, it mainly produced diamonds for mechanical processing. Now, through technological innovation, it has built a full chain of diamond products such as micropowder, single crystal, and diamond, and the added value of products has increased exponentially." Sun Ruomei, director of the Management Committee of Zhecheng County High-tech Zone, told reporters that the high-tech zone has settled more than 110 diamond superhard materials and related supporting enterprises, cultivating diamond roughs and processing and selling diamonds of 4 million carats, and the output of micropowder and export volume account for 70% and 50% of the national market share respectively.
Shangqiu City is only one of the rich areas of artificial diamond production capacity in Henan. Zhengzhou, Xuchang, Nanyang and other cities are also important production areas of artificial diamonds and their products. There are many industry leaders and listed companies such as Zhongnan Diamond, Yellow River Cyclone, Sifangda, Zhengzhou Huajing, and there are more relatively small-scale enterprises. "Qichacha" search shows that there are as many as 499 enterprises in Henan whose names contain "diamond".
A large number of enterprises release huge output every year. "According to incomplete statistics, Henan produces about 12 billion carats of industrial-grade artificial diamonds and more than 6 million carats of rough diamonds each year, a considerable portion of which are exported to India and other places for cutting and processing, and then sent to Europe, North America and other regions." Sun Zhaoda, Secretary General of the Superhard Materials Branch of the China Machine Tool Industry Association, introduced.
60 years from a diamond to a chain
On the lawn of Zhengzhou Abrasives and Grinding Research Institute Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Sanmo Institute"), a golden spherical equipment stands on a heavy rock base. This is a "meritorious press" that has witnessed the development of my country's superhard materials industry.
"In 1963, we developed China's first artificial diamond in Beijing, and later built this top press in Jinan." Wang Guangzu, 90 years old this year, is one of the developers of China's first artificial diamond.
Wang Guangzu recalled that because the diamond pilot base is located in Zhengzhou, Sanmo Institute has a good foundation for mass production of superhard materials, so this top press naturally settled in Sanmo Institute.
Founded in 1958, Sanmo Research Institute is now affiliated to China National Machinery Industry Corporation, a Fortune 500 company. It is known in the industry as the "Huangpu Military Academy" of China's superhard materials. It is said that more than half of the country's superhard material R&D entrepreneurs come from here.
After the industrial mass production of artificial diamonds in Sanmo Research Institute, China's artificial diamond industry has continued to "fission", and production companies have spread from Sanmo Research Institute to the whole country. After several years of development, the production process has continued to improve, the industrial chain has continued to expand, and a complete industrial chain has been derived from a diamond.
"Artificial diamond rough stone, micro powder, wire saw, diamond, top press, from equipment to products, Henan enterprises have not only opened up the industrial chain, but also some industry leaders have almost achieved the ultimate in the subdivided fields." A senior industry insider introduced that it is currently accelerating its extension to the high-end field.
The reporter learned from the visit that some leading enterprises are accelerating the layout of cutting-edge research. The diamond wire saw used by Huanghe Cyclone for semiconductor silicon carbide cutting has ranked among the world's top, and the synthetic technology of cultivated diamonds is leading in China; Zhongnan Diamond is committed to the research of new materials for diamond semiconductors, and has prepared large-size ultra-high-purity diamond semiconductor wafers and diamond polycrystalline heat dissipation films; Huifeng Diamond has produced 5-nanometer diamond micropowder.
The profit margin of diamonds in the field of artificial diamonds is quite considerable, and many manufacturers are expanding production capacity and laying out gem processing. Zhecheng County has introduced three diamond jewelry processing companies. During the National Day last year, the high-end cultivated diamond brand DEINO of Sanmo Institute started online sales.
Innovation leads to the creation of new advantages in the industry
While domestic manufacturers are accelerating the layout of the artificial diamond industry, competition from overseas is intensifying. India is an important exporter of cultivated diamonds in my country. It is currently vigorously supporting the cultivated diamond industry to open up the entire industrial chain of production, processing and sales.
According to foreign media reports such as The Times of India and the leaders of leading enterprises, India plans to increase its share of the global output value of cultured diamonds from the current 15% to 30% in 2025. Gujarat, a diamond cutting and processing base, has exempted cultured diamond enterprises in its jurisdiction from electricity taxes for the next five years. In August last year, the State Bank of India also stated that it began to provide loans to cultured diamond producers, with priority given to the import of cultured diamond production equipment.
The challenges facing China's diamond industry are far more than just artificial diamonds. Industry insiders admit that although China has the most complete diamond industry chain and the largest output, it still faces major challenges in cutting-edge research in the field of functional diamonds.
In addition to excellent mechanical properties, diamond also has many excellent properties in heat, light, sound, electricity, and chemistry, such as ultra-high thermal conductivity, high carrier mobility, high insulation, excellent optical transmittance, and chemical stability, which makes it have excellent application potential in cutting-edge technology fields such as aerospace, new generation semiconductors, and ultra-high power devices.
According to industry researchers, the cutting-edge applications of diamond materials have put forward higher requirements on the purity, size, preparation and processing technology of diamonds, and the high temperature and high pressure method has exposed its limitations in some aspects. In the field of CVD (chemical vapor deposition), which has higher expectations, some research in the United States, Japan, South Korea and other countries has made great progress. A few companies such as Element Six in the UK, Iljin in South Korea, and DI in the United States have the ability to produce a small amount of special varieties and some high value-added products.
