It is essential to have a perfect match between the anvil and the supporting seat when mounting Boehler-Almax diamond anvils, This is achieved by lapping the two components together.
We recommend you to purchase these two parts as matched pairs.
The Boehler-Almax anvils are glued onto their carbide seats either by our technicians or alternatively in the laboratory by using our gluing jig (A74200).

Most likely the main parameter you will have to decide upon is the conical aperture 2θ required. We have a choice ranging from 30° up to 85° (X-ray). The schematic below shows the difference between optical (a_) and X-ray apertures (a_X).

Generally speaking X-ray diffraction will require larger aperture whereas for optical spectroscopy apertures up to 50° will usually be sufficient.

Diamond anvil, type IIas, Boehler-Almax design, 16-sided, 2.50 mm – 30°, culet of 0.10 mm, bevels up to 0.30 at 8°, (100)-oriented:

Diamond anvil, type IIas, Boehler-Almax design, 16-sided, 3.10 mm – 70°, culet of 0.30 mm, (100)-oriented:

NEW ANVIL DESIGNS IN DIAMOND-CELLS (PUBLISHED:High Pressure Research, September 2004, Vol. 24, no. 3, PP 391-396)
R. Boehler, K. De Hantsetters

New diamond anvils with conical support are introduced. Compared to conventional anvils the new design offers superior alignment stability, larger aperture, and reduced cost owing to significantly smaller anvil diameters. Except for table and culet, all surfaces are precision ground on a lathe, which lowers cost compared to faceted anvils. The conical design allows for steel supports, which are significantly easier and cheaper to manufacture than tungsten carbide supports. Conical support also prevents seat damage upon diamond failure.

Pressure-dependent structures of amorphous red phosphorus and the origin of the first sharp diffraction peaks. (Published online: 12 October 2008; doi:10.1038/nmat2290) JOSEPH M. ZAUG, ALAN K. SOPER AND SIMON M. CLARK

A custom-designed diamond anvil cell (DAC) built to enable X-ray diffraction out to very high angles was used in our study. This DAC consists of a four-post symmetrical design with WC Boehler-Almax type backing plates and a 1.7-mm-tall, 6.5-mm-girdle-diameter, type-IB diamond on the downstream side and a conventional backing plate and diamond on the upstream side. This combination enables diffraction data to be collected at angles of up to 110°2θ. Scattering intensity varies smoothly as X-rays traverse only through air, the sample and diamond windows. The minimum sample-to-detector distance available on BL 12.2.2 is 135 mm, which combined with the highest useful energy of 35 keV limited the maximum Q-range to ~10 °A−1.

Incorporation of a new design of backing seat and anvil in a Merrill-Bassett diamond anvil cell. (Published: (2008). J.Appl.Cryst. 41, 249-251 [doi:10.1107/S0021889808000514].)   Stephen A. Moggach, David R. Allan, Reinhard Boehler, Simon Parsons, Koen de Hantsetters and John E. Warren.

A modification to the Merrill-Bassett miniature diamond anvil cell is reported here with the inclusion of W-carbide backing seats with Boehler-Almax cut diamonds to replace the previously used beryllium seats and (typically) modified brilliant cut anvils. This has led to the removal of troublesome beryllium powder lines from our diffraction images, while maintaining the pressure range and opening angle of the original design.

Miniature diamond anvils for X-ray Raman scattering spectroscopy experiments at high pressure (Published: (2017). J.Synchrotron Rad. 24, 276-282 [doi.org/10.1107/S1600577516017112].) S. Petitgirard, G. Spiekermann, C. Weis, C. Sahle, C. Sternemann and M. Wilke.

X-ray Raman scattering (XRS) spectroscopy is an inelastic scattering method that uses hard X-rays of the order of 10 keV to measure energy-loss spectra at absorption edges of light elements (Si, Mg, O etc.), with an energy resolution below 1 eV. The high-energy X-rays employed with this technique can penetrate thick or dense sample containers such as the diamond anvils employed in high-pressure cells. Here, we describe the use of custom-made conical miniature diamond anvils of less than 500 µm thickness which allow pressure generation of up to 70 GPa. This set-up overcomes the limitations of the XRS technique in very high-pressure measurements (>10 GPa) by drastically improving the signal-to-noise ratio. The conical shape of the base of the diamonds gives a 70° opening angle, enabling measurements in both low- and high-angle scattering geometry. This reduction of the diamond thickness to one-third of the classical diamond anvils considerably lowers the attenuation of the incoming and the scattered beams and thus enhances the signal-to-noise ratio significantly. A further improvement of the signal-to-background ratio is obtained by a recess of ~20 µm that is milled in the culet of the miniature anvils. This recess increases the sample scattering volume by a factor of three at a pressure of 60 GPa. Examples of X-ray Raman spectra collected at the O K-edge and Si L-edge in SiO2 glass at high pressures up to 47 GPa demonstrate the significant improvement and potential for spectroscopic studies of low-Z elements at high pressure.