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As follows from the part 5, the SIAMITE® completely replicate the brightness, color, and density of the most widely used gemstones. In connection with this, a common question arises – how to distinguish faceted SIAMITE® stones from natural gemstones? This question is quite relevant, as many buyers of our stones have already turned to gemological laboratories in many countries worldwide and received incorrect conclusions – “glass”, “special glass”, “natural tourmaline”, “topaz” … Gemologists worldwide have a standard set of criteria for identifying gemstones: color, refractive index, density, magnification, absorption spectrum, fluorescence. However, the nature of SIAMITE® glass-ceramic makes classic gemological...

The complete catalog of transparent SIAMITE® gemstone reflections include about 780 different colors and shades (Fig. 4,5,6), along with more than 200 translucent and opaque varieties (Fig.7). They are part of 104 transparent color groups (groups of emeralds, blue topazes, sapphires, rubies, tourmalines...) and approximately 50 translucent and opaque groups (groups of turquoise, moonstones, lapis lazuli, jadeites...). Figure 4. SIAMITE® reflections of the most common natural gemstones. The ability to produce many colors, shades, and saturations is another unique feature of SIAMITE. This allows for the creation of a wide range of imitations of natural gems from different deposits: emeralds...

The physical properties of SIAMITE® gemstone reflections (hardness 7.5-8, density 2.9-3.3 g/cm3, RI = 1.60-1.63) are optimally close to such natural gemstones as tourmaline, topaz, and emerald (see the attached Table 2). The quartz group (amethyst, citrine, smoky quartz, etc.) lags behind Siamite® in all three indicators, while corundum, spinel, and garnet have higher densities and refractive indices. Corundum surpasses Siamite® and all other gemstones in hardness.   It is known that many natural and synthetic crystals and glasses cannot be used for the "Setting Stones in Wax" method because they crack or change color under the influence of a...

Having thoroughly studied the properties of a large number of glass-ceramic materials, we settled on the so-called cordierite system SiO2-Al2O3-MgO (Fig.2). The trademark SIAMITE® was chosen based on two considerations: 1) the chemical formulas of the three main components start with Si, A, and M (SiAM); 2) Formica established the production of its material in Thailand, historically known as SIAM. The ending "ite" is commonly used in mineralogy and petrography for many minerals and rocks. In addition to the three main components mentioned above, the material contains TiO2, ZrO2, ZnO, Li2O as well as some nucleating, fining, and coloring agents....

In the initial segment of our discussion, we touched upon the fact that SIAMITE® glass-ceramic, created by Formica, is an entirely new type of gemstone imitation that did not exist before. Consequently, many people have question: what is the glass-ceramic? Glass-ceramics are ceramic materials formed through the controlled crystallization of glass. Production takes place in two stages: in the first stage, a special high-temperature glass is produced using almost standard glass making technology, and in the second stage, this glass undergoes special heat treatment, during which nuclei and then crystals of minerals emerge. It is important to emphasize that crystallization...