Industry Cookware Products Cookware and bakeware Founded 2001 Number of employees 50 | Area served Worldwide Website [1] Headquarters Sierre, Switzerland Type of business Private | |
 | ||
Swiss Diamond International is a company that produces nonstick cookware using diamond crystals. It is a privately held company, headquartered in Sierre, Switzerland and founded in 2001.
Contents
The company was founded to oversee production of cookware with the coating after it was awarded a gold medal at the International Inventor’s Fair in Geneva in 1999.
HORT COATING (Pre 1999)
In 1974, HORT Coating Center SA was founded in Sierre, Switzerland as a research company that explored nonstick materials and coating surfaces. HORT used wet-spraying and powder-spraying processes to coat a wide range of products, including machinery parts for airplanes, coffee makers, and Swiss watches. Prior to 1999, HORT Coating Center used a titanium-based nonstick coating, which at the time was the most durable choice as a nonstick reinforcement.
In the early 1990s, HORT Coating Center began testing methods for improving the coating, the main criteria being better hardness and excellent thermal conductivity. These criteria led to diamonds. Diamonds are the hardest natural substance, but HORT discovered that their low coefficient of friction gave them natural nonstick properties as well, improving the performance of the nonstick coating. The Swiss Diamond "SD" coating was released after 2 years of preliminary testing to determine the best formulation and application process.
Swiss Diamond – The Early Years
In 1999, HORT Coating Center received the gold medal at the International Inventor’s Fair in Geneva, Switzerland, for the diamond-reinforced nonstick coating. Soon after, it was revealed that the coating could be used on not only machinery parts but also on nonstick cookware, which started to appear in the marketplace in the 1950s. In 2001, HORT Coating Center became the manufacturing center for Swiss Diamond International, dedicated to the production of nonstick cookware.
HD Coating
As part of continuing research and development, Swiss Diamond International engineers developed a new formula for the coating in the early 2000s. The new coating is high-density, abbreviated "HD." By exchanging twenty percent of the formula's components, the engineers were able to improve the coating's performance in industry-standard Abrasion (mechanical) tests. The coating was improved by more than thirty percent in both nonstick release performance and longevity over time. The coating formula was patented by HORT Coating Center, and is used exclusively on Swiss Diamond cookware.
Induction Cookware
In 2002, Swiss Diamond International released a line of induction cookware with the diamond reinforced coating.