The History of HPHT Diamond Creation

  The creation of diamonds in a lab setting has a fascinating history. This article will explore the major developments that led to the first successful production of diamonds using high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) technology over 60 years ago.

  In the late 19th century, scientists first theorized that mimicking the conditions inside the earth's mantle could produce diamond crystals. The main requirements were extremely high pressures and temperatures over 1500 degrees Celsius. In the early 1900s, General Electric developed an apparatus that could apply up to 55,000 atmospheres of pressure, close to that found inside the earth. However, they were unable to produce diamonds as they could not generate sufficient temperatures.

  A breakthrough came in 1953 when ASEA, a Swedish electrical company, collaborated with Baltzar von Platen and Anders Kämpe to build the first successful belt press. This machine could apply both high pressure through a prismatic belt, and high temperature through an electric current. The design was inspired by an ordinary belt used to squeeze juice from oranges. When graphite was compressed in the belt press, small diamond crystals formed demonstrating it was possible to make diamonds in a lab.

  Over the next decade, scientists fine-tuned the process and equipment further. In 1970, General Electric managed to synthesize the first gem quality diamond crystals using HPHT. After being cut and polished, these lab-grown diamonds were hard to distinguish from natural ones. The relatively slow and low yield process was not commercially viable yet, but huge progress had been made.

  Major diamond corporations soon got involved in HPHT research including De Beers and Sumitomo Electric. In the 1990s, hundreds of patents were filed as companies raced to perfect the engineering and make HPHT diamond production commercially profitable. Major milestones included the first 1 carat HPHT diamond in 1998 and development of cubes and films by Element Six.

  Today, multiple companies around the world successfully create billions of carats of diamonds using HPHT machines. Singapore's IIa Technologies and Russia's New Diamond Technology are the current leaders producing high quality gems. 70 years of innovations have transformed lab-grown diamonds from a scientific curiosity to a major industry today.