Diamond Inscriptions

[LaserLady]

Intro TAKE 2 !

I know about laser inscriptions and can assist with questions having to do with inscriptions...such as how they are placed on a stone and how they can be removed and anything else you can think of.

So if you have questions....I''m here !

 

[pqcollectibles]

Hi LaserLady!!

And Welcome to the Forum!!

There are always questions popping up about inscribing. Your knowledge and input will be very helpful!!

 

[niceice]

Welcome to the forum

Why not take the initiative and turn this thread into a little tutorial and go right ahead and explain the in's and out's of inscription?

What happens when our inscription machine decides to skip a beat and misses the target mark where we intended the inscription to be placed -or- skips a character (that's our personal favorite - sarcasm!) like "N ce Ice G1 345789" is that we end up sending the diamond back to the cutter to have it re-polished and re-worked for excellent / ideal polish and symmetry and then we have to send it back through the laboratory which graded the diamond and re-run the proportions analysis so that we can properly market the diamond again... It's a total hassle and one that should NEVER occur with a machine that cost as much as it does

But at least we know that we're not alone, we asked the labs what they do when it happens to them just last week and they told us that they have to "eat crow" and send it back to the cutter who submitted the stone for grading...

 

[LaserLady]

The inscription process is actually very simple. (I can, of course, only speak about the system which I am familiar with) Through the use of a laser, microscopic dots are placed on the girdle of a diamond. Like a dot matrix printer these dots come together to form the letters, numbers, or image being inscribed on the stone. Inscriptions initially appear dark due to the carbon residue. After a strong cleaning this residue might disappear (not always). The result is what is known as a "transparent inscription." Which, might I add, seems to be more and more popular these days.

In my opinion, the problems with improper/incorrect spacing only happen in the larger labs where the laser operator might not be paying attention to the laser during the inscription process… or with the older laser systems that don’t allow the operator to view the stone during the process. Again, let me state, I can only speak about the system I am familiar with. I monitor the inscription from beginning to end, so that errors such as you described will not happen. My laser can be stopped immediately, the second I see that it is taking on a mind of its own. At that time, I can redirect the laser.....in other words, get it back on track.

There is no question… to avoid the problems niceice mentioned extra care should be taken when inscribing an "ideal-cut" stone....but in my opinion, extra care should be taken when inscribing ANY stone. I would hate to have to send a stone off to be polished or re-cut, whether ideal or not.

I hope this has answered your questions.

 

[niceice]

We like the sound of your equipment!

Our scenario is the latter where the inscription can not be viewed until the machine has finished and it is definitely not a matter of not paying attention... What sort of equipment are you using? Sounds very cool!

So here's an example of the kind of "error" that we're talking about:

This "feather" suddenly appeared on an Internally Flawless diamond after we sent it to the lab which originally graded the diamond for inscription... Does that look like a feather to "anybody"? Looks more like a dot matrix type of dotted line to us and "funny" the lab director indicated that it really didn't look like a feather to him either but "that was the closest identifying type of mark they had to identify the inclusion by" and suddenly our IF clarity diamond is now a VVS-1 with a whole new lab report number

And it gets more "interesting"... Here's a picture of a second "feather" that suddenly appeared on the same stone, notice how it has the exact same characteristics as the first "feather" right down to the wispy tail coming off of the right edge... It's essentially exactly the same, but shorter.

So off the diamond goes to be re-polished so that it can be returned to an IF clarity status and then off it goes to the lab to be re-graded so that we can return it to market... Over the hill and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go... Kind of sounds the same

The lab representative told us that the inclusions (which can't be clearly identified apparently) are not due to the laser even though they look like laser marks and were probably on the diamond when it was submitted for grading, but funny we didn't see them on the diamond when we evaluated it, nor did the client who evaluated the diamond for quite some time with the assistance of a local GIA Graduate Gemologist and neither did the Gemologist who confirmed the clarity grade of the diamond as "IF" but it only took us about thirty seconds to find these inclusions on the diamond when it came back from the lab as VVS-1 so apparently we can't grade our way out of a box anymore... Sarcasm.

 

[LaserLady]

From the looks of it you are definitely a victim of "operator error." Unfortunately, things like that are virtually impossible to prove. I'm sure you and the lab director had a "nice talk" (I know I would have had some words with him/her) Unfortunately (due to their popularity) the larger labs have such a high volume of business, I'm sure that they have no choice but to fly through many of the stones. We've become a world of consumers that want everything "yesterday." Speed is usually the key to success.

I'm sure you'll agree.....when it comes to inscriptions speed is NOT the answer.

 

[niceice]

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On 5/21/2004 5:48:18 PM LaserLady wrote:

I'm sure you and the lab director had a 'nice talk'
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Oh yea, it was a real "nice" chat

And you're also correct in your assumption that we can't prove anything, but the lab director was able to remember the stone out of all the diamonds that are submitted to them... So it goes. Somebody obviously wasn't paying attention and the lack of focus is clear on several levels of this particular project. For instance, we sent the diamond in for inscription and update of the lab report which means that the lab report was to be updated to reflect the addition of the inscription. But what we got back was a diamond inscribed with a new lab report number for a new lab report - it's as if the old lab report number never existed... Go figure. Too bad we keep scanned color copies of the original when we submit stones to the lab for updates, heh?

Anyway, we're really glad to hear that you are offering a service where somebody is taking their time to get things right!!! And hopefully our unfortunate experience can be seen by those reading this thread as an example of what can happen if somebody isn't paying attention and they will understand that this is NOT typical of what happens when diamonds are submitted for inscription, it's just something that happens "sometimes" and unfortunately when it does, it is always hard to take...