JUNE 10, 2009--Using a Zwick compression testing machine, researchers at South African company DebTech, a research and development arm of the world's largest diamond producer De Beers, have for the first time been able to experimentally measure the breakage function of a diamond.
As well as crushing diamonds, the Zwick machine is also used to fracture ceramic cylinders, which are used by diamond mines to periodically assess the effectiveness of its mining processes. These ceramic cylinders are put through the mining process and their fragments are collected and analyzed at the other end.
DebTech uses a Zwick Z030 equipped with a 30-kN load cell and features Zwick's testXpert software. The software also enables frame synchronization of video recordings and features a laboratory information management system (LIMS) that is used to administer test results spanning a number of test series.
For more information, go to http://www.zwick.com/Zwick-machine-helps-optimize-diamond-mining-processes.342.0.html.
-- Posted by Conard Holton, Vision Systems Design, www.vision-systems.com
