A standard, 3-inch-diameter crystal wafer sells for about $850, and the crystal that Galaxy and McCluskey are developing likely wouldnt cost much more than that, he says.īlanchat says potential applications for the new types of crystals include use in infrared cameras that detect higher-than-average body temperatures in people afflicted by highly contagious diseases. Galaxy sells those crystals to infrared-camera makers, who in turn sell them to the Department of Defense for use in missiles, jets, and satellites, and to astronomers for use in telescope-type equipment, Bakken says.
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Montgomery, in Spokane Valley, where the company occupies about 4,000 square feet of space, he says. Galaxy, which buys high-purity metals here from Honeywell Electronic Materials, which bought Johnson Mattheys operation, makes the crystals at 922 E. To create the crystals it currently sells, Galaxy uses two machines that refine and melt two metals together to form the alloys, Bakken says. Galaxy hopes to extend the crystals wavelength detection to the far-infrared region by adding another metal to the companys current products, which only detect mid-infrared wavelengths, he says. Galaxy part-owner and engineer Daniel Bakken says Galaxy and McCluskey are developing new types of crystals that can detect a wider range of colors in the infrared spectrum than what the companys current products detect. McCluskey says he recently received a $24,000 grant from the Washington Technology Center to conduct the joint research with Galaxy. Now, Galaxy is partnering with Matthew McCluskey, a physics professor at Washington State University, to create a new type of infrared-detection material that could broaden Galaxys range of product applications for the medical-equipment and automobile markets. Department of Defense and astronomers across the country with the infrared-sensitive crystal wafers, says co-owner and President Kevin Blanchat. Since Galaxy split off five years ago from London-based Johnson Matthey Electronic Materials Inc., which owned a major facility here, the company has supplied the U.S. She’s also pushed other partnerships-including working with architect Daniel Libeskind to design the star for the top of the Rockefeller Christmas Tree.Galaxy Compound Semiconductors Inc., a small, Spokane Valley-based company that produces metal alloys called crystals used in infrared-detection equipment, says it is working to develop a new material that could expand greatly the markets the company serves. Her grandfather had partnered with the likes of Coco Chanel and Christian Dior, and she decided to find her own iconic designer, eventually collaborating Alexander McQueen. Since joining the family business in 1995, Swarovski has been on a path to return the company to its fashion roots. Swarovski also said that it’s possible for companies to come up with a better way of extracting materials from the earth but they haven’t yet wanted to invest the time or money. Lab-grown diamonds cost about 50% less than those extracted from the earth, but Swarovski said that the influx from De Beers will drive prices down further. In response, De Beers has launched its own line of lab-grown diamonds. Swarovski said that the diamond industry is “very worried” by the company’s arrival into the market. The minute you are able to mine the diamonds, sustainably, we will be your customer.’” “We have been talking to diamond people,” Swarovski said, “and I could only say, ‘We are totally for everything that sparkles. Up until this point, the company had mostly stayed out of the diamond business. “It is truly about better ways,” she later added. “They use little energy to produce, and they don’t affect people or the planet,” she said at Fortune Most Powerful Women International Summit in London on Tuesday. Her solution: creating diamonds in a lab that are bio-identical to the real thing.
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Now his great-great-granddaughter, Nadja Swarovski, a member of the company’s executive board, is on a path to create diamonds that are accessible by making them not only more affordable but also more sustainable. Daniel Swarovski, who started his eponymous crystals company 125 years ago, used to say, “diamonds are for royalty, but I want to create a stone for every woman, that every woman can afford.”