Traditional diamond testers were designed to separate diamond from diamond-simulants like CZ and Moissanite. The most common handheld testers use thermal or electrical conductivity because diamonds conduct heat and electricity differently than Moissanite and other simulants. Thermal testers can successfully separate diamonds from simulants, but do not distinguish whether a diamond is lab grown or natural, since they conduct heat identically.
Electronic testers can mistakenly identify some lab grown diamonds as Moissanite. This is because electronically conductive boron is used in the HPHT growth process. The resultant conductivity can fool electronic testers into falsely identifying HPHT grown diamonds as Moissanite. The HPHT process also uses a metal catalyst to stimulate growth, the remnants of which may be conductive.
In this way, consumers have been concerned that when they buy diamonds at one store and then take them to another, they will be told they aren't diamonds. OGI was asked to create a new detector that would distinguish easily between lab-grown, diamonds, and moissanite. Diatrue device could be used by industry professionals or by consumers.
