Diamond is the hardest, most abrasive-resistant, material known to man. These properties make diamond an ideal cutting tool. Within the crystal structure, however, fracture planes, used by the diamond cutter to produce the gem diamond from the rough, can cause catastrophic breakage of the tool edge, when subjected to impact. DR-PCD tools incorporate Polycrystalline Diamond blanks produced under conditions of high pressure (1 million PSI) and temperature (1700 Degrees C), similar to those of diamond synthesis. Randomly orientated, carefully selected synthetic diamond crystals are grown together on a hard metal substrate. This results in a material with the hardness, abrasive resistance and high thermal conductivity of diamond with the toughness of hard metal. Using the hard metal substrate the PCD blank is brazed to a carrier, either steel or hard metal, and machined by grinding or E.D.M to produce the cutting edge. When compared to other cutting tool materials, there are three main reasons for using DR-PCD tools:- Increased tool life results in reduced tool cost per component and less idle machine time. Increasing cutting speed improves productivity through reduced cycle times. Grinding and other less productive machining methods can be replaced by DR-PCD milling and turning.
© David Richards Engineering 2008