The Swiss Gemmological Institute SSEF and UNIMEC SA, a robotics company also headquartered in Switzerland, announced the release of the ASDI-500, a new version of the Automated Diamond Spectral Inspection device. The ASDI-500 will be unveiled at GemGenève International Gem and Jewellery Show, being held from 3-6 November, 2022, at Palexpo in Geneva.
The ASDI-500 is able to detect and extract synthetics and simulants as small as half a millimetre in diameter, at a speed of 700 stones per hour. The machine can detect all colourless synthetic diamonds, both HPHT and CVD grown, and diamond simulants.
Able to screen large quantities of round colourless polished melee, detecting and extracting synthetics and simulants from among the natural diamonds, the ASDI-500, according to the firms, is the only such system operating today that has the degree of precision to handle stones as small as 500 microns (0.5 mm) in diameter.
When it was introduced eight years ago, the ASDI was the very first device able to automatically screen large batches of colourless diamonds. It was developed to protect the integrity of the Swiss watch and jewellery industry, which as major consumers of melee must be able to ensure that undisclosed synthetics and simulants are not being sold as natural diamonds.
Jean-Pierre Chalain, director of SSEF’s diamond department, explained, “The ASDI-500 is the first-ever automatic machine to fill the gap between approximately 0.50 mm and 1.00 mm. To an uninformed person, this gap may seem insignificant, but traders and consumers of melee know that it represents millions of diamonds per month.”
UNIMEC integrated within the ASDI-500 its extremely fast pick-and-place robot, which has an astounding precision of positioning of 5 microns.