[en] A new device has been designed to facilitate the cleaving of thin sections from bulk crystals of mercuric iodide. Crystallographic perfection of the machine-cleaved sections was established by gamma-ray diffraction rocking curves and was found to be higher than the perfection of hand-cleaved sections or of as-grown thin platelets, approaching the perfection of string-sawn sections of HgI₂. A correlation was found between the perfection and thickness of the machine-cleaved sections, i.e., the thicker the section the more perfect it is. Reproducibility of the fabrication was significantly improved by using machine cleaving in the fabrication process