Bort, boart, or boort is an umbrella term used in the diamond industry to refer to shards of non-

gem A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, an ...

-grade/quality diamonds. In the manufacturing and heavy industries, "bort" is used to describe dark, imperfectly formed or crystallized diamonds of varying levels of opacity. The lowest grade, "crushing bort," is crushed by steel

mortars Mortar may refer to: * Mortar (weapon), an indirect-fire infantry weapon * Mortar (masonry), a material used to fill the gaps between blocks and bind them together * Mortar and pestle, a tool pair used to crush or grind * Mortar, Bihar, a village ...

and used to make industrial-grade

abrasive An abrasive is a material, often a mineral, that is used to shape or finish a workpiece through rubbing which leads to part of the workpiece being worn away by friction. While finishing a material often means polishing it to gain a smooth, reflec ...

grits. Small bort crystals are used in

drill bit Drill bits are cutting tools used in a drill to remove material to create holes, almost always of circular cross-section. Drill bits come in many sizes and shapes and can create different kinds of holes in many different materials. In order ...

s. The Democratic Republic of the Congo provides 75% of the world supply of crushing bort.

Use and application

Bort is commonly used as an

. Smaller flakes and particles are used as an additive for scouring or polishing pastes and agents. Larger particles can be added to cutting, drilling and grinding tools to improve their lifespan and substantially increase their efficiency. Bort particles varying from one to two nanometers are added to lubricants such as paraffin oil. These particles will embed themselves into minute irregularities and imperfections of moving-part surfaces. Particles that remain suspended in the lubricant oil act as both a polishing agent, further smoothening the surfaces, and as

ball bearing A ball bearing is a type of rolling-element bearing that uses balls to maintain the separation between the bearing races. The purpose of a ball bearing is to reduce rotational friction and support radial and axial loads. It achieves this ...

s between the surfaces. Such nanotechnology applications with paraffin oil containing approximately 1% of these nano-size bort particles may decrease the friction up to half of that without the nano-particles.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite book , last1= Spear , first1= K.E , last2= Dismukes , first2= J.P. , title= Synthetic Diamond: Emerging CVD Science and Technology , url= https://books.google.com/books?id=RR5HF25DB7UC , page= 628 , publisher= Wiley– IEEE , year= 1994 , isbn= 0-471-53589-3 , url-status= live , archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20150425115752/http://books.google.com/books?id=RR5HF25DB7UC , archivedate= 2015-04-25 Industrial diamond
Encyclopædia Britannica. Bort
Encyclopædia Britannica. {{Cite book , author= {{Sc, Mines Bureau , url= https://books.google.com/books?id=zyKCNW0BHm8C&q=use+of+bort+as+abrasive+polisher+and+on+drilling+and+sawing+tools&pg=SA21-PA2 , title= Minerals Yearbook Metals and Minerals 2010 Volume I , pages= 21–22 , date= 2010 , accessdate=December 30, 2018 , isbn= 978-1-4113-3449-6 , archivedate= December 30, 2018 , archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20181230142508/https://books.google.nl/books?id=zyKCNW0BHm8C&pg=SA21-PA2&lpg=SA21-PA2&dq=use+of+bort+as+abrasive+polisher+and+on+drilling+and+sawing+tools&source=bl&ots=gyGJyiwFeY&sig=qfnq6I08pJFifL8bGZ08jsMgLs4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjcruDt3cffAhWKbVAKHYgoDFMQ6AEwDXoECAcQAQ , url-status= live {{cite web , first= Jason , last= Ballengee , url= https://www.aiche.org/sites/default/files/community/258271/aiche-community-site-page/258701/january-aichepresentation-pdf.pdf , date= 2016 , title= Nanodiamond and Lubrication Applications , website= aiche.org , publisher= SP3 NANOTECH, LLC , archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20181206102553/https://www.aiche.org/sites/default/files/community/258271/aiche-community-site-page/258701/january-aichepresentation-pdf.pdf , archivedate= December 6, 2018 , access-date= December 6, 2018 , url-status= live

Scientific notation Scientific notation is a way of expressing numbers that are too large or too small (usually would result in a long string of digits) to be conveniently written in decimal form. It may be referred to as scientific form or standard index form, o ...

in SI unit(s): 1–2 × 10⁻⁹ m. {{Cite news , last= {{Sc, George , first= {{Sc, Beekman , url= https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/1997/01/04/betere-smering-met-behulp-van-zeer-fijn-diamantpoeder-7337586-a498147 , title= Betere smering met behulp van zeer fijn diamantpoeder ''(Better lubrication using diamond powder of very small particles)'' , lang= Dutch , website= nrc.nl , publisher=

NRC Handelsblad ''NRC'', previously called ''NRC Handelsblad'' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. It is generally accepted as a newspaper of record in the Netherlands. History ''NRC Handelsblad'' was first published on ...

, date= January 6, 1997 , access-date= December 6, 2018 , archivedate= December 6, 2018 , archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20181206093103/https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/1997/01/04/betere-smering-met-behulp-van-zeer-fijn-diamantpoeder-7337586-a498147 , url-status= live Diamond

Use and application

See also

References