Profitable brilliance of diamonds

Demand is greater than supply: Belarusian superhard materials and tools are in demand both in the country and abroad

From space to jewellery. Belarusian diamond produced by the Scientific-Practical Materials Research Centre of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus today is one of the best synthetic materials in the world. The idea comes from the 1960s, when single crystals of various compounds began to be grown in the centre. The technology is still in demand today, but with a different, more modern content. We are talking about the prospect of using diamonds and derivatives from this superhard material with Deputy Director General of the Scientific-Practical Materials Research Centre of the National Academy of Sciences Oleg Ignatenko.

Belarusian land is rich in innovators

Today, equipment with diamond elements — cutters, drills — will not surprise anyone. At least they are in the spotlight. As a maximum, many are familiar with the reliability and durability of such equipment. But in our country they thought about it in the distant 1960s. Nevertheless, the main thing is that the technology itself, the school, has been preserved to this day, having been multiplied by new developments. And today, the interlocutor notes, it is successfully developing in the scientific and practical centre. Moreover, there is a total rejuvenation of personnel in the direction. So, seven out of nine employees are young people in the Laboratory of High Pressure Physical and Superhard Materials of the Scientific-Practical Materials Research Centre of the National Academy of Sciences. And there is no staff turnover.
 In addition, the Belarusian land is traditionally rich in innovators, Oleg Ignatenko emphasises, “It’s something at the genetic level. Even if young people do not receive the necessary knowledge at the university, when they come to our centre, they not only cope with the tasks set, but also do it creatively. Get know-how, a new development, a patent — such a question is not worth it. Given the situation on the outer circuit, much is expected from scientists today. Diamond technology is no exception. And problems, as they say, are easier to overcome together.” 
That is why, Oleg Ignatenko notes, a consortium for superhard materials has been created in the country, which, in addition to the SPC, includes the Institute of Powder Metallurgy of the National Academy of Sciences, the Joint Institute of Mechanical Engineering and the Institute of Physics and Technology.
There are 11 full-fledged scientific and technical groups that work in the field of tools, “Today, at the level of the country, the Union State, we are not talking about competition between producers, but about co-operation, when everyone makes his own contribution to the common cause. This co-operation allowed us to reach a serious task. Now, in co-operation with the Economy Ministry, we are working on a pilot project, when science, represented by an engineering centre, is a locomotive for various areas of industry in the tool industry. One of the tasks of our centre is consulting and training of the country’s enterprises in this area.” 

Strategic objective — to replace imports

Today the Scientific-Practical Materials Research Centre of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus can do a lot. Even if we talk only about the topic of diamonds, which flaunt in the jewellery of fashionistas, and are also raw materials for creating a wide range of diamond tools that are in demand in the country and abroad. However, Oleg Ignatenko reminds, even the best equipment for their production needs to be replaced one day. After all, the tasks facing the organisation today are big.Research worker Sergei Parshutich

Scientists are not sitting still. They improve technologies, nomenclature. 
“We started producing tools — cutting inserts — for new turning centres. That is, we are ready to modernise the country’s profile enterprises,” Oleg Ignatenko notes.   By the way, today the SPC is a monopolist in the production of such products. For a long time, both in Belarus and in Russia, this product was imported. Therefore, today the need for import-substituting products is very high. In Russia, for example, the import of diamond tools at one time exceeded 90 percent. There are other pitfalls in this as well. After all, today an importer can set even an inflated price for a consumer enterprise. Such are the laws of the market in the absence of competition.
“But for Belarus, as long as our SPC exists, this does not threaten: the prices for the instrument here will be lower than in neighbouring countries,” Oleg Ignatenko explains. 
In co-operation with enterprises, the materials science centre works on request. If an enterprise needs a tool that cannot be manufactured right now, the SPC introduces the task into the development plan, the source says. The main consumer of the centre’s products from the public sector are machine-building enterprises, including MTZ, MMZ.
“Today, thousands of positions of instruments are used throughout the country. We cannot master everything at once. Our first priority is to replace imports.”

Develop and grow

Small batches of products that the SPC is now producing are enough for the domestic market, says Oleg Ignatenko. But there is room for improvement and growth. Moreover, the products produced by the centre are extremely profitable. And only the SPC has such capacity in terms of the production of diamond powder in the country.  
Single crystals of various compounds began to be grown here as early as the distant 1960s

“We get a product worth $2,000 from an initial powder worth $30 per kilogramme. And if you then make a tool out of it, then the amount will increase to 10 thousand dollars,” Oleg Ignatenko notes. Demand for Belarusian diamonds themselves, according to him, today is greater than supply, “Now we grow a stone of one and a half carats in 4 days. We are planning to produce 50 stones within the same period using the new technology. The production of powder materials will increase from 0.8 to 250 carats in three minutes. Up to 90 percent of such products are exported.”
That is why the SPC is seriously thinking about modernising, expanding production and developing new products. According to the plans, the modernisation will last three years and will cost Br57 million Belarusian. These funds, according to Oleg Ignatenko, are ready to be invested by private traders, “Our material is the best in the world. With the modernisation of equipment, we will be able to close the need for a tool up to a thousand positions at once.” 
Another type of product that is produced here are diamond substrates, which, as part of microelectronic equipment, can operate in space. Traditional silicon substrates, according to the specialist, today faced the problem of overheating. Diamond analogues do not have such problems, “Such parameters are especially needed in conditions of open space, exposure to cosmic radiation. In addition, the development for the future can be used to improve the quantum computer. Also, substrates are already used today as detectors of ionising radiation.”

By Vera Arteaga
Photos by Yegor Yermalitskiy, belarus.by