Shen Caiqing
Author: Shen Caiqing, the first vice-chairman of the Artificial Gemstone Committee of CPA, the second and third executive vice-chairman and secretary-general of the committee, and a senior engineer of the Mining Simulation Laboratory of Beijing Geological Research Institute of the Nuclear Industry.
Figure 1 Synthetic crystals
Since the founding of New China, China's jewelry industry has developed greatly, and the artificial gemstone industry has also developed rapidly. By the beginning of the 21st century, China's artificial gemstone industry has made great achievements, and laid a solid foundation for further development in the future, China's artificial gemstone industry in the 21st century will have a more brilliant development.
I. Reasons for the rapid development of artificial gemstones in China
As we all know, artificial gemstones are synthesized or grown in laboratories and factories, and its production volume can be adjusted according to the needs of the market. The only requirement for synthesizing and growing artificial gemstones is to achieve the highest grade and the best quality and the most beautiful degree of the corresponding natural gemstones. Therefore, artificial gemstones are much cheaper than natural gemstones of the same quality and are so beautiful that they can be made into many different styles, which are suitable for the public to wear and use, and have a wide mass base. On the other hand, the mineral resources of natural jewelry are limited, especially the high-grade gemstones and their high-quality products are even less, it is difficult to meet the market demand, artificial gemstones can supplement the natural high-grade gemstones output is small, to a certain extent, alleviate the contradiction between supply and demand in the market. So it seems that the mass production of artificial gemstones is the need of the market and the need of people to beautify their lives, which is also an important reason for the rapid development of artificial gemstones. Some people say that artificial gemstones are "half of the market" in China's jewelry market, which is true to its name! Another reason for the rapid development of synthetic gemstones in China is the importance of their use in high-tech fields and national defense research. For example, such as synthetic crystals (Figure 1), due to the existence of a variety of defects in natural crystals, as piezoelectric crystal raw material is not ideal, while synthetic crystal performance is particularly good, fully able to meet the requirements of piezoelectric crystal. Piezoelectric crystal is mainly used for radio frequency stabilization components, each color TV, each radio, each cell phone (cell phone) in the use of synthetic crystals as a stable radio frequency components. Another example is synthetic ruby, earlier used in mechanical watches in the bearings or instrumentation in the bearings (flame fusion method of synthetic ruby), now used in lasers in the components (Tirah method of growth of ruby), and the laser is very useful, in addition to the civil industrial use we all know, the military can be used for high-energy lasers to hit the aircraft, hit the satellite, but also can be used to laser focusing produces ultra-high energy and ultra-high temperature Simulation of the atomic bomb nuclear explosion to obtain the necessary data; synthetic colorless sapphire for the watch industry, known as the "never wear the watchmonkey", melt bubbling method of growth of high-quality colorless sapphire for energy-saving lighting projects, called LED components, not only the brightness is large, the power consumption of the same brightness of the light bulb is only 1 / 20; and large-diameter optical-grade sapphire is used for energy-saving lighting projects. 20; and large-diameter optical colorless sapphire, is a missile, unmanned aircraft, submarines with the window material, very important, very much in need, and now our country has been able to produce a window for intercontinental missiles with a diameter of 200mm or more of this crystal. Another example is the flame melting method of growth of artificial strontium titanate gemstone, can be used as a "rattlesnake missile" window material. With the progress of science and technology and the development of military industry, I believe that the crystal material will put forward more and more requirements, people in the process of completing each task, and will make the artificial gemstones to get further development. From this, we can see that in China, which is booming after the reform and opening up, with the continuous improvement of people's living standard, the increasing level of science and technology, and the need for the development of the national defense industry, China's artificial gemstone industry will be strengthened, developed, and improved, with an unlimited bright future!
Two, at the beginning of the 21st century, China's production of artificial gemstones has been ranked among the world's top
China's production of artificial gemstones began in 1958, in order to revitalize China's national industry. In order to develop China's watch industry, first of all to solve the problem of ruby bearings in the mechanical rotation process in the watch; the development of other instrumentation industry, the same to solve the bearing problem. To this end, a flame-fusion synthesized ruby production line was introduced from the Soviet Union, thus beginning the development of China's artificial gemstone industry. Subsequently, the development of China's national economy, the development of science and technology, the development of national defense and military industry, all need new materials research and expansion, objectively also promote the development of China's artificial gemstone industry, it is gratifying to the beginning of the 21st century, the production of China's artificial gemstones has been ranked among the world's top:
1) our synthetic cubic zirconium oxide In 1982, the test, put into operation in 1983. At the beginning of the production of only 5kg per furnace. now, the production of 400kg per furnace, due to the furnace is large, each single crystal is also large, up to a single crystal of about 2kg, such a growth furnace in 2005 statistics there are 205, estimated annual production capacity to reach 12300t or so, but the market demand is not so much, and therefore the start rate is not enough, the actual annual production of 6000t or so, the world's first.
2) China's synthesized crystal began in the 1950s, successful in the 1960s. Due to the rapid development of the radio industry, the need for a large number of piezoelectric crystals, coupled with the need for the development of China's jewelry industry, prompting the rapid development of China's synthetic crystal industry. At present, China's annual output of synthetic crystals about 1760t, is also the world's first.
3) China's flame fusion method of synthesizing rubies and sapphires, introduced from the Soviet Union in 1958, using electrolysis of water to obtain oxygen and hydrogen, which consumes a lot of electricity. Now after technological innovation, the use of chemical plant production of oxygen or hydrogen gas as raw materials, both to solve the pollution problem, but also cost savings. According to incomplete statistics in 2005, the annual output has reached 235t, if coupled with the Pingnan County, Fujian Province, Xinlei Crystal Co., Ltd. of the new 300t flame melting method of ruby all put into operation, then the total output is expected to reach an annual output of 435t, which is also the world's first.
4) China's synthetic diamond production in 1963, small particles, belonging to the industrial level, but because of the great use of diamond, so the development is very fast. At present, China's annual output of synthetic industrial-grade diamond reaches more than 1.2 billion carats, also the world's first.
5) China's glassy imitation aventurine was successfully developed by Beijing Yongao Artificial Gemstone Research Institute in 1990s, and the annual output reached 600t at most. Due to the high output, good quality and cheap price, the similar products from Italy and Japan were squeezed out of China's market, and its output is also the first in the world.
6) glass imitation cat's eye in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Shanghai, developed successfully, and soon became popular in the national jewelry market, the current annual output of about 1200t, is also the world's first.
7) Others: synthetic artificial luminous jade, rare earth transformation of high refractive index vitreous gemstones (commonly known as rare earth glass), etc. are invented by our scientists and technologists, the output is of course the world's first.
Only on the above data, we can proudly say that at the beginning of the 21st century, our country's production of artificial gemstones has ranked among the world's top.
Three, at the beginning of the 21st century, China's artificial gemstone production base profile
With the continuous expansion and development of China's artificial gemstone industry, China's artificial gemstone production base is also changing, and the trend of change is to keep increasing and expanding, to the beginning of the 21st century, China's artificial gemstone production base profile is as follows:
1) Synthetic cubic zirconia production base mainly in Guangxi, Sichuan, Fujian, Zhejiang, Hunan, Hubei and other provinces; the powder raw material production bases of synthetic cubic zirconia are in Deqing City, Zhejiang Province, Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province and Fujian Province.
2) flame melting method of synthesizing ruby, sapphire production base mainly in Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province and Xiaoshan City, Pingnan County, Fujian Province, Yantai City, Shandong Province, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province and Hanzhong City, Hefei City, Anhui Province, Zhenning County, Guizhou Province, Sichuan Province, Changshou City, and Chongqing Municipal Instrumentation Plant No. 8, Qiangyang County in Hunan Province and other places. Flame fusion method of growing spinel base in Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province.
3) The largest factory of synthetic crystal is in Jiaojiang City, Zhejiang Province, and there are synthetic crystal factories in many provinces of the country.
4) hydrothermal growth of emeralds and rubies is the early 1990s in Guangxi Gemstone Research Institute, under the leadership of the director of the team under the leadership of Professor Zeng Jiliang research success, so the production base in Guilin City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
5) There are about 5,000 production plants growing industrial-grade diamond by high-temperature and ultra-high-pressure method, but there are about 450 manufacturers producing single-particle industrial-grade diamond, and the rest mainly produce polycrystalline diamond or diamond products, which are distributed all over the country.
6) The production bases for growing high-quality crystals such as crystals for lasers and window materials for the defense industry by the melt lifting method are mainly located in Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, Shanghai City, Tianjin City, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, and Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province.
7) glassy imitation aventurine production base in Beijing (Yong Ao Artificial Gemstone Research Institute), has built a lot of new production plants in China, but the output and quality of the Beijing Yong Ao Artificial Gemstone Research Institute compared with the products there is still a certain gap.
8) Glassy imitation cat's eye gemstones are researched and developed by Shanghai Institute of Silicate Research of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the technology transfer is in the area around Shanghai, but now the raw materials and semi-finished products are mainly produced in Jingjiang City, Jiangsu Province, and the finished products are mainly produced in Putian County, Fujian Province.
9) Rare earth glass gems were invented in Shanghai, and the production base is also in Shanghai.
10) The production base of "Qinglong Luminous Jade" with luminous effect is in Beijing.
Four, the early 21st century, China's artificial gem industry product sales base
With China's artificial gem industry production varieties and the continuous expansion of production, the sale of artificial gemstones as well as artificial gemstones made of jewelry or fashion jewelry slowly formed the distribution center, to the early 21st century, the domestic larger, more famous also has a larger artificial gemstone distribution centers are mainly three: Wuzhou City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region; Qingdao City, Shandong Province; and Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province.
1. Wuzhou City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
Wuzhou City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is located in the eastern part of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the junction of Guangdong Province, about 4 hours away from Guangzhou City by car to Wuzhou City, Wuzhou City, known as the "gateway to Guangxi on the water" and "Hong Kong". Wuzhou is known as the "water gateway of Guangxi" and "small Hong Kong", and has been open to foreign trade for more than 100 years. The area of the jurisdiction is 12,588km2, with a population of 3.05 million, and the urban area is 1,097km2, with a population of 500,000 people. Information shows that: from 1982 by the Hong Kong people to open gemstone processing factory (grinding gemstones) here, the gradual development and expansion of the existing gemstone processing staff of more than 110,000 people, the number of processed gemstones is about 13.68 billion grains per year, the main processing of synthetic cubic zirconium oxide and flame fusion method of synthetic ruby, the processing of these two kinds of artificial gemstones accounted for about 95% of the domestic, the world's 85% or so. The artificial gemstone industry in Wuzhou has solved the employment problem of 100,000 people in Wuzhou, made many people in the surrounding rural areas out of poverty and created good conditions for the re-employment of laid-off workers. Therefore, the processing and trade of artificial gemstones has become one of the pillar industries in Wuzhou, and the municipal government has given active support to it. At present, there are from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mexico, Russia, South Korea, India, Thailand, Italy, the United States and other more than 200 companies based in Wuzhou business. In order to solve the situation of having a market without a field, the municipal government tried every possible means to introduce foreign investment to build "Wuzhou Gem City". "Wuzhou Gem City" has a total investment of more than 70 million yuan, the project covers an area of 21,998m2, with a building area of 39,998m2, four floors, 500 stores, 250 operators, and an annual turnover of about 1 billion yuan. With the continuous development of the industry, the existing Gem City has been unable to meet the market demand, the second phase of the project "Wuzhou Gem Tower" has been completed, 33 floors, construction area of 102,481m2, will soon be put into use. The development of Wuzhou artificial gemstones has reached a considerable scale, China Jewelry & Jade Jewelry Industry Association awarded Wuzhou artificial gemstone characteristics of the industrial base of the honorary title.
2. Qingdao, Shandong Province
Qingdao's artificial gemstones have developed very rapidly in recent years, and it has now become the largest sales base for artificial gemstones in the northern region. Qingdao has more than 1,000 simulated jewelry processing factories with artificial gemstones as the main stone, of which inlay enterprises account for more than half. The market capacity is huge, and the annual purchasing volume of artificial gemstones reaches up to as much as 5 billion RMB, and there are more than 100 famous enterprises with branches or offices in Qingdao City. Its main feature is mainly export-oriented economy, especially with the neighboring country of South Korea, which has a very good relationship, Korean enterprises occupy half of the artificial gemstone market in Qingdao, playing an important role in the prosperity and development of Qingdao's artificial gemstone market. With the annual jewelry exhibitions and academic lectures, Qingdao's popularity as the largest sales base for artificial gemstones in the north will grow, and business will get bigger and bigger, which in turn will promote the further development of artificial gemstones.
3. Yiwu Small Commodity Market of Zhejiang Province is a well-known wholesale market at home and abroad
1) General situation: planning and development began in 2002, after the development of Yiwu Small Commodity Market was renamed the International Trade City, by September 2005, the first and second phase of the market construction and development of the International Trade City has been completed, with a total area of 1,400,000 m2, the largest modern commodity wholesale market in the world. It is the largest modernized wholesale market in the world. The market has 50,000 business spaces and more than 160,000 employees. There are more than 7,000 foreign merchants purchasing here every day, and the products radiate to more than 200 countries and regions around the world. More than 350,000 containers are exported annually, and the exported products account for 60% of all the traded products. Due to this situation, the World Brand Lab and World Broker Weekly released the 2005 China's Most Branded Ranking at the World Brand Conference, and Yiwu China Commodity City was ranked 158th, with a brand value of RMB 3.902 billion.
2) artificial gemstones as the main stone of the imitation jewelry crafts market mainly in Yiwu International Trade City in the first phase, the first phase of the market covers an area of 350 acres, a construction area of 330,000 m2, with an investment of 660 million yuan, consisting of five connected rectangular basic units. The field is divided into five business areas, 20 goods show trade halls, handicrafts, jewelry, toys, flowers and other 15 categories, more than 20,000 kinds of commodities arranged in an orderly manner, a wide range of goods. Imitation jewelry crafts are mainly on the second and third floors, with about 4,000 operators. The stores of the merchants are filled with a wide range of raw materials, semi-finished products or finished products for imitation jewelry crafts (Figure 2), of which semi-finished products or finished products made of glass account for the vast majority, and a small portion of them are plastic or low-grade semi-precious stone products.
Figure 2 Yiwu Small Commodity Market, a wide range of jewelry
3) Yiwu Small Commodity Market, the expensive rent reflects the large volume of transactions: It is reported that the first phase of the International Trade City, the second floor of the jewelry shopping mall, a 45m2 or so stores, only five years of royalties have to be paid 2 million yuan RMB, in addition to the rent of 200,000 yuan RMB per year, taxes and management fees 5,000 yuan. In addition, the annual rent will be 200,000 RMB, tax and management fee will be 5,000 RMB. From this, it can be seen that if you want to get a foothold in the Yiwu commodity market, you have to pay at least RMB 650,000 per year. So, can merchants earn that much money? The answer is yes, they can! Because there are 7,000 foreign merchants purchasing here every day, and tens of thousands of domestic merchants purchasing here, as long as the products are right, there is no problem in the transaction of large quantities of goods. According to the second floor of a store supervisor Mr. Chen, store total area of 45m2 or so, the vast majority of samples displayed inside the glass imitation diamond products, only a small amount of synthetic cubic zirconia, synthetic rubies and other samples, come to the store to purchase a lot of people, Mr. Chen said that the average profit of each glass imitation diamond products after the sale of only a few centimeters of profit, less than a penny, anyway, but the trading situation is good, a day can do However, when the trading situation is good, the business can be more than 100,000 yuan a day, and the business turnover is about 100 million yuan a year. We can think that this is beyond the business mindset of "small profits, big profits", and has become the business principle of "small profits, big profits". Therefore, even though the rent of stores is very expensive, many people want to buy a store and cannot do so. This shows the Yiwu Small Commodity Market, the second and third floor of the 4,000 jewelry and accessories trading volume.
4) from the jewelry production company to see the use of glass imitation diamond products and product sales: Yiwu City, a well-known local jewelry production company, the company has alloy, claw chain, copper and silver and other five series of more than 20 categories of more than 300,000 styles of products, the sales network covers the whole country, the products are exported to more than 70 countries and regions overseas. According to reports, the company's existing staff of 5,600 people, the daily production and use of glass imitation diamond products 5 million, the light of these glass imitation diamond products every day to stick to the jewelry on the people will need 600 people. Think about it, this one company every day with glass imitation diamonds 5 million, the country has tens of thousands of jewelry companies or processing plants, add up every day to use glass imitation diamonds how many of them? How many pieces of jewelry can be produced every day? Its number must be a shocking astronomical figures! Data show that by October 2005, China's wholesale markets registered in the business sector up to more than 100,000, we can infer from the above a company on the use of glass imitation diamonds and the amount of product production of China's use of glass imitation diamonds and its jewelry production of large quantities.
Fifth, the beginning of the 21st century in China's artificial gemstone varieties increase at the same time, the color is also increasing and perfect
Today, in China's artificial gemstone market, people can not only see artificial gemstone varieties continue to increase, and each artificial gemstone color is also gradually increasing and perfect, towards the series. In Wuzhou and Yiwu sales market, in order to do business conveniently and accurately, all the different colors of a certain kind of artificial gemstones are bound into a color card, numbered, so that the buyer is clear at a glance, and the transaction will not produce errors, from which we can also feel the continuous development of China's artificial gemstone industry. In my hand, there are 20 kinds of color cubic zirconia, 11 kinds of synthetic spinel and 9 kinds of synthetic corundum color cards of Hong Kong Yongfu Enterprise Company, 18 kinds of synthetic cubic zirconia color cards of Guitai Company in Guilin City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, 12 kinds of synthetic corundum color cards of Juhua Gemstone Factory in Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province, 13 kinds of synthetic spinel color cards, and 96 kinds of rare gemstones color cards of Hong Kong Yongfu Enterprise Company. 96 color cards for rare earth glass gemstones from Yongfu Enterprise Company, 28 color cards for ordinary glass from CITIC Jewelry Company in Qingdao Chengyang Commodity Market, 147 color cards for glass "rhinestones" from Wuzhou Gem City in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, 29 color cards for glass imitation cat's eye gemstones from Dongxing Gemstone Factory in Jingjiang City, Jiangsu Province, and 13 color cards for glass imitation cat's eye gemstones sold by a company in Shenzhen City, Zhejiang Province, and 13 color cards for glass imitation cat's eye gemstones sold by a company in Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province. A company in Shenzhen sells 13 colors of synthetic opal color cards. This shows that China's artificial gemstone market is booming.
Sixth, the beginning of the 21st century, China's artificial gemstone production process has made great progress
China's artificial gemstone production process in 1958, the introduction of the former Soviet Union from the flaming method of ruby growth so far there is a great deal of development and improvement, there are facts to prove it:
1) flaming synthesis of ruby: the Soviet Union process of electrolysis of water to obtain the method of hydrogen and oxygen production, the production of 1kg of ruby with about electricity. Production of 1kg ruby with electricity about 1100kW-h, the cost is very high. China's use of chemical plants in the production process discharged excess gas hydrogen and oxygen production of rubies, both environmental protection and energy saving, but also to reduce costs, three birds with one stone; Fujian Xinlei Jewelry Company in the specific operation of the gas stabilization method (to enhance safety), the creation of rolling operation method so that each person operated by 10 units to each person can be operated by 80 units, greatly improving the efficiency of the work.
2) cold crucible melting shell method of growth of synthetic cubic zirconia: since 1983, China's production of synthetic cubic zirconia, there has been a great improvement in equipment. At first, each high-frequency furnace in China can only produce 5kg of synthetic cubic zirconia per furnace, equipment improvements, now each high-frequency furnace can produce 400kg of synthetic cubic zirconia per furnace, greatly improving the yield, cost reduction; synthetic cubic zirconia single crystal size has also been increased, the previous product is relatively small, each only a few dozen grams of weight, and now the product can be reached more than a single 1980g; There are also many increases in product color varieties (Figure 3).
Figure 3 Comparison of the size of synthesized cubic zirconia
3) High-temperature and high-pressure synthesis of industrial-grade diamonds: when China began to produce industrial-grade synthetic diamonds in 1963, each synthesis could only obtain 10 to 15 carats of small particles of synthetic diamonds, but now each synthesis can obtain 60 carats of synthetic diamonds, and the particles have increased significantly (Figure 4).
Figure 4 Synthetic industrial-grade diamond graphite sheet
4) Melt lifting method to grow high-quality crystals: Juhua Gemstone Factory of Zhejiang Province dares to work hard and is good at creation, the original production of ruby synthesized by flame-melting method of the factory, in 1998, the successful production of a synthetic spinel; in 1997, it also aimed at the laser crystal materials, purchased the production equipment of the melt lifting method and recruited a group of young people to work on the laser crystal material from the fresh graduates of universities. University graduates recruited a group of young people to attack the problem, and now this group of young people have become the backbone of the gemstone factory, after hard work, finally in 2001 produced a laser doped rare earth YAG crystals, with excellent performance (Figure 5); in 1999, and aimed at the international advanced lighting LED crystals, which is the growth of colorless sapphire crystals using the melt vesiculation method. With this crystal as a substrate for the manufacture of LED lamps lighting brightness, low energy consumption, only the same brightness of the energy consumption of electric bulbs 1/20; 2001 and then aim at the defense industry on the urgent need for missiles and unmanned airplanes and other optical-grade window crystal materials, for which they do it themselves to do the melt pulling method of production equipment, the performance of more than the same kind of foreign products, and now has been able to produce a heavy weight of about 20kg, the diameter of 250mm qualified optical-grade window crystals, and the production of the same kind of products. Now they are able to produce the qualified optical grade window crystal material weighing about 20kg with the diameter up to 250mm. They have made great contributions to the development of China's cutting-edge science and technology and national defense industry (Figure 6).
Figure 5 Rare-earth-doped YAG crystals for lasers produced by Juhua Company
Figure 6 Optical-grade colorless sapphire window materials
5) Hydrothermal growth of gemstones: China's hydrothermal growth of gemstones is based in Guilin City of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which is capable of growing synthetic emeralds, synthetic rubies, and synthetic sapphires in different colors (Figure 7). In order to meet the needs of high-tech development, they experimented with hydrothermal growth of zinc oxide successfully, and later experimented with the growth of KTP crystals successfully, which not only contributed to the development of high-tech, but also had a great increase in economic benefits.
Figure 7 hydrothermal synthesis of rubies and emeralds
Seven, the early 21st century, China's synthetic imitation gemstone products rise
With the reform and opening up of the deep development of China's entire jewelry industry has been the development of the boom, which led to the development of the artificial gemstone industry. The development of the jewelry market requires a large number of various types of gemstones, artificial gemstones of good quality and low price is suitable for the needs of the market, although the production of artificial gemstones compared to the production of high-quality natural gemstones, but still can not meet the needs of the jewelry market. Synthetic imitation gemstones have greatly enriched the variety of colors in China's jewelry market, and the use of the large amount of the real is the emergence of a new force. at the beginning of the 21st century, China's synthetic imitation gemstones are mainly glass imitation starlight gemstones, glass imitation cat's-eye gemstones, rare-earth glass gemstones, glass imitation red coral gemstones, glass imitation turquoise gemstones, glass imitation diamonds and so on (Fig. 8).
Figure 8 glass imitation cat's eye, imitation red coral, imitation turquoise
Eight, artificial luminescent gemstones - "Qinglong luminescent jade"
Speaking of "luminescent jade ", we all know is in the dark can glow in the treasure, is very rare, very valuable, very mysterious things, who all want to get it. China's synthetic luminescent powder began in the 1960s, was synthesized with zinc sulfate doped with copper, during the "Cultural Revolution" was widely used in the production of Chairman Mao's statue and Chairman Mao's statue, this generation of luminescent powder is characterized by low luminous brightness, luminescent time is short. 1989, the Germans made the alumina as the substrate, to Rare earth elements as the activator of the new luminous powder, which is characterized by strong luminous brightness, luminous time is long (more than 10 hours), but this luminous powder into the carving of the imitation of jade is "Beijing Hualong Yayang Limited Liability Company" invented, and obtained the invention of the patent, Patent No. ZL96106373.4, registered as "Qinglong Luminous Jade" is now widely used in the production of gemstone rings, carvings, night pearls and fitness balls and other products. This kind of luminous gemstone hard texture, colorful and diverse, can be processed into a variety of ornaments, in the night or the dark place can be a long time light, and according to the composition of the different luminous, green, yellowish green, blue-green, blue, purple and other luminous, the surface of the body color is also green, white, green, red and purple, etc., and now the production of the luminous jade can be the largest diameter of 170mm, the maximum weight of up to The maximum diameter of luminous jade produced now can reach 170mm, and the maximum weight can be up to 26kg, which can be used to carve relatively large-scale handicrafts. In addition, "Qinglong Luminous Jade" releases energy in the form of visible light, which is called a cold light source, and has a supplementary therapeutic effect in medicine, making it a rare functional material (Figure 9).
Nine, the beginning of the 21st century, China's artificial gemstones in other aspects of progress
1) the establishment of local standards for artificial gemstones: in Guangxi Wuzhou Gem City, thousands of artificial gemstones are traded every day, and the quality of artificial gemstones must be evaluated. In order to have a *** same standard, Wuzhou City set up a drafting group for artificial gemstone standard, and with the assistance of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region government, established China's first Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region local standard, a *** there are five artificial gemstone standards, which are synthetic cubic zirconia, synthetic ruby, synthetic sapphire, synthetic spinel, and glass standard. In each standard, there are "clarity standard", "cut grading standard", "cut size tolerance", "faceted finish standard "and so on.
2) brand strategy of artificial gemstones: the core of the brand is culture, is the national spirit of thousands of years of accumulation, is the *** with the values of all employees of the enterprise, is the entrepreneur's personal moral qualities and sense of social responsibility, is the need for the development of the enterprise itself, but also the voice of entrepreneurs in this industry, the greater the number of brand names owned by a country is not only a manifestation of the country's economic strength but also a manifestation of high overall quality of the nation. The higher the number of brand names a country has, the stronger the country's economic strength is also a manifestation of the nation's high overall quality. Our country is vigorously promoting the jewelry brand strategy. The "Jindeli" brand, which uses artificial gemstones as its main raw material for jewelry, has become a well-known trademark in China.
Figure 9 Crafts carved by Qinglong Luminous Jade
The upper picture is under light, corresponding to the lower picture is in the dark room
3) Increase in processing equipment for artificial gemstones: Wuzhou City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, processes 13.68 billion artificial gemstones every year, so they have given more consideration to the faceting and processing equipment for artificial gemstones, and they designed and manufactured a lot of machines, among which a number of processing equipment has won national patents. The processing equipment has won the national patent. In Wuzhou artificial gemstone processing industry, different varieties of artificial gemstones should be faceted by mills with different speeds, and processed by different polishing discs and different sizes of polishing powders, that is, the same varieties of different sizes of gemstones are also processed by different sizes of polishing powders; for the requirements of different surface finishes of the gemstones, different speeds, different polishing discs and different sizes of polishing powders have to be selected, which can be seen that a lot of work has been done to improve the processing quality. It can be seen that a lot of work has been done to improve the processing quality, and the work has been done in a very detailed way. At present, there are about 30 kinds of artificial gemstone processing equipments produced in Wuzhou, which are almost sold all over China and also exported to Cambodia, Russia and many other countries.
4) The export of simulated jewelry mainly made of artificial gemstones is increasing year by year. The statistics of the General Administration of Customs show that the export of imitation jewelry was 311 million US dollars in 2003, 394 million US dollars in 2004, and 611 million US dollars in 2005 (accounting for about 11% of the total export value), which reflects the thriving scene of the artificial gem industry from one side.
Ten, the artificial gem industry development of the discussion
Artificial gem industry is so thriving, there must be the potential for development, but to be observed and analyzed with care. Opportunities are not waiting there, sometimes instantaneous, so be good at discovering. The author puts forward the following questions to discuss with you:
1) A powerful enterprise or company should work towards the direction of creating a famous brand name, and create a famous brand name.
2) The production varieties of artificial gemstones should be further developed. Over the years, some new artificial gemstones have been successfully developed abroad, such as the growth of gem-quality diamond by gas-phase epitaxy, the growth of large-grained gem-quality diamond by high-temperature and ultra-high-pressure method, the growth of carbon silica by high-temperature and ultra-high-pressure method, the growth of emerald and ruby by flux method, the growth of two-color or three-color crystals by hydrothermal method and so on, and we hope that powerful enterprises will develop the new varieties of artificial gemstones.
3) Where the need to go where to do business. For example, Yiwu Small Commodity Market in Zhejiang Province reflects that it is hoped that raw material producers of artificial gemstones will set up shop in Yiwu to facilitate the purchasing of jewelry and accessory production factories. Yiwu Commodity Market is world famous, every day there are so many domestic and foreign merchants to go there to purchase, set up a point after the business must be good.
4) standardize the market, do not just give the name of artificial gemstones. Some places do not name according to national standards. For example, the Hong Kong people called the synthetic cubic zirconia "square crystal zirconia", Wuzhou people called the synthetic cubic zirconia "synthetic zirconia" or more simply called "zirconia", both of which are incorrect, because zirconia and zirconia are the same. Because zirconia and zircon are two different minerals, their chemical composition, crystal structure, physical and chemical properties are not the same. The chemical composition of cubic zirconia is ZrO2, the crystal structure is isometric crystal system; while the chemical composition of zircon is ZrSiO4, the crystal structure is tetragonal crystal system. They are not the same at all, can not be confused. Another example is the flame melting method of ruby synthesis, in Wuzhou are called "red corundum", so called is not right, because each mineral has two kinds of names, up to the gem level is called the name of the mineral, up to the gem level is called the name of the gem. Corundum is the name of the mineral, flame fusion synthesized ruby to reach the gem level, should be called synthetic ruby, can not be called "red corundum". In addition, the national standard of "naming principles" in the prohibition of the use of confusing and ambiguous terms named, "red corundum" belongs to this kind of prohibited. Name confusion in the market for artificial gem trading is not conducive to standardize the market to make artificial gem names unified to the national standard.
5) research and development of the country's urgent need for products in short supply. For example, the country's urgent need for energy-saving products crystal LED-level sapphire crystals (produced by the melt pull method), at least 10,000 pieces per month, now in short supply, the strength of the unit can be produced.