I think it’s absolutely amazing 
that you can print diamonds.
Think about it, you’re printing the world's hardest material.
Diamond. 58 times harder than anything else
in nature. Formed by incredible forces.
Since 1953 we’ve been able to produce synthetic
diamond but since it’s so hard and complicated
to machine, it’s almost impossible 
to form complex shapes.
This is the hardest material on earth. If
you couldn’t make it to the right shape
from the beginning, how should you do it?
So how do you shape the hardest thing in nature?
What if we combined one of the world’s hardest
materials with one of the 
world’s newest processes?
What if we could 3D print in diamond?
Additive manufacturing opens up a lot of new
possibilities where we can use materials that
we have today, but we can combine 
them in a completely different way.
If you compare it to a cemented carbide, which
is probably one of the most wear-resistant
materials out there, then the diamond could
last ten times longer. If you would compare
it to a wear-resistant high-speed steel for
example, then the diamond could easily last
a hundred times longer.
We are printing in a slurry consisting of
diamond powder and polymer using ultraviolet light.
This has never been done before so every step 
along the way is uncharted territory.
When we did this, we looked at the different
available AM techniques and we realized that
stereolithography is one of the technologies
that might be suitable for this. So we started
the development process to see how we could
integrate diamond particles into this process.
The next step in the process is even more
demanding. This is the critical step where
Sandvik has developed, a tailor-made, proprietary
post processing method that is able to produce
the exact properties of a dense, 
super-hard diamond composite.
This step was extremely complicated, but after
extensive R&D efforts Sandvik managed to take
control over the process.
So here it is, the world’s first 3D printed
diamond composite. With perfect structure
and characteristics. Why is this diamond
so interesting? Well, we believe you will
see this in advanced industrial applications
from wear parts to space programs
– just a few years from now.
The amazing thing with diamond, I mean, it
really opens up design heaven for a designer
taking those properties and producing parts
with Additive. You can do features inside
these types of materials that 
have never been done before.
We are just starting to grasp the possibilities
and impact this innovation could have on the future.
Just imagine what it could do to industries,
when it is possible to print anything
in any shape – in diamond.
When it comes to the shapes that you can make
when you’re 3D-printing in diamond is just
within the limitations of your imagination.
It might not be the world’s biggest 
or most beautiful diamond
– but it could be the most important.
