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Industrial Uses for Sapphires

Sapphires are among the most valuable and desirable gemstones in the world. Coming in many vibrant colors, such as blue, violet, gray, green, brown and orange, sapphires are most commonly used in jewelry. However, both sapphires and corundum, the substance from which sapphires are formed, have some industrial uses, as well. Next to diamonds, sapphires are the hardest naturally forming mineral.

Abrasives
- Corundum is almost as hard as diamonds, scoring a nine on Mohr's hardness scale. For this reason, finely ground corundum is commonly used as an abrasive, to sand and polish materials---especially other hard gemstones---that are otherwise unable to be scratched.
Particle Collectors
- NASA uses sapphires and other precious gems in its spacecrafts to collect traces of elements in space. Due to their low impurity levels, sapphires are ideal for picking up noble gases such as helium and neon, and respond well to laser eblation, a particle extraction technique. The trace elements found in sapphires and other gems are also used to analyze solar winds.
Power Tools
- Similar to diamonds, corundum is added to the metals in drill bits and saws to enable these power tools to drill and cut through hard objects. Adding diamond or corundum dust is the only way to make power tools tough enough to cut through other hard materials.

Rocks & Minerals