Partners & People – Element Six Ltd. (E6)


element six

Element Six Ltd., (E6)
Element Six Ltd is a world leader in production and innovation of superhard materials, including diamond and cBN single and polycrystalline materials. The history of the company’s experience in producing synthetic diamond dates back to the 1950’s. The company consists of about 2400 employees worldwide, with its main production sites in Ireland, Germany, South Africa, UK and the US.

With more than 50 years experience in High Pressure High Temperature engineering, Element Six has developed proprietary technology and robust production systems capable of producing discs of polycrystalline diamond and cubic boron nitride from 8mm in diameter up to 100mm in diameter. State of the art production is 4 -5.5GPa and up to 1500oC.
In 2013 the company invested 30 million dollars in building and setting up a Global Innovation Centre in Oxfordshire, UK. This centre is where 140 physicists, chemists, materials scientists, engineers and technologists lead the innovation of the company.
Within the project, Element Six proprietary high pressure systems will be used to produce selected novel polycrystalline products, which could replace CRM-based tungsten carbide in selected applications, including precision machining. As part of the project Element Six will also work on design engineering to improve HPHT cemented carbide engineering material tool life and hence drastically reduce weight of cemented carbide tool material used as a component in HPHT systems.

CV of persons who will primarily be involved in the project

Dr. Antionette Can (female) is a Principal Research Scientist and Project manager at Element Six Global Innovation Centre in Oxfordshire, UK. She has been working at Element Six in various research departments since September 2004.  Her roles have included project management and technical development of various novel polycrystalline diamond and cubic boron nitride materials for Oil and Gas and more recent focus has been on Precision machining application areas.
Dr Antionette Can received a Bachelor of Science degree (in Chemistry and Physics) summa cum laude from the University of Natal, South Africa, in 1999, and an Bachelor of Science Honours degree (in Physics) cum laude in 2000 from the same University. During the course of her studies Dr Can won several awards and financial grants for top achievement in Chemistry, Maths and Physics courses.
In 2005, she received a Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, having completed the practical work for her PhD at the Fraunhofer Institute for Sintering and Ceramic Technologies (IKTS) in Dresden, Germany, in the field of Liquid Phase sintering of Silicon using hot pressing, gas pressure sintering and high pressure sintering (sponsored by the DAAD (Germany government) and Element Six. She is a named inventor in 11 patent families and additionally has six scientific publications.

Dr. Miriam Miranda (female) is a Senior Research Scientist and Project manager at Element Six Global Innovation Centre in Oxfordshire, UK. She has been working on cubic boron nitride synthesis and sintering of novel polycrystalline cubic boron nitride materials since March 2014.
Prior to this Dr Miranda worked as a postdoctoral research at Imperial College for 3 years after obtaining a PhD cum laude in Nanostructured biocompatible composites with hydroxyapatite matrix from the University of Oviedo Spain in 2010. She also holds a Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Oviedo (Spain) specialising in Bioprocesses. One of the highlights from her research experience was the awarding of the IEF Marie Curie fellowship between 2012 for Project Biohymat. She is the co-author of 9 scientific publications and 1 patent application.

Dr. Serdar Ozbayraktar (male) Dr Ozbayraktar is the Core R&D Manager at Element Six for Novel Technology and Product Platforms at Element Six Global Innovation Centre, Oxfordshire, UK. Dr Ozbayraktar has been with Element Six for 24 years and his prior experience includes General Manager position of the Diamond Research Laboratory of Element Six and De Beers Industrial Diamonds in South Africa and serving on the Board of Directors of the Centre of Excellence for Strong Materials in South Africa for 9 years (2003 – 2013). From 1991 to 2003 Dr Ozbayraktar held various research positions including Programme Manager for polycrystalline products research and manager for the Computechnics Function. He received his PhD in Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg, South Africa in 1993.
Dr Ozbayraktar has authored and co-authored various articles on polycrystalline diamond sintering, properties and applications. He has 14 patent families co-inventorship.