Cutting Tool, Diamond

a tool equipped with a cutting element made of natural or synthetic diamond. Diamond cutting tools are used for abrasive polishing disks and blocks, honing heads, cutting tools and milling cutters with diamond disks, draw plates, sticks and rollers for the adjustment of diamond tools, smoothing tools (polishers), and boring tools. Diamond compounds are also used in machine building, mainly for grinding parts and finishing surfaces.

Natural industrial and synthetic diamonds are used in diamond tools in the form of powder (in abrasive tools) or individual processed crystals (in draw plates, sticks, and rollers). The industrial production of synthetic diamonds made possible an increase in their use for diamond tools by a factor of about 5 in comparison with natural diamonds. Depending on the use of a diamond cutting tool, it is made from diamond powders with various binders—organic, ceramic, elastic (rubber), or metallic. The diamond content in a diamond tool is determined by its concentration in the diamond-bearing layer. A 100 percent concentration is equivalent to 0.878 mg of diamond dust per cu mm of diamond layer.

The physical and chemical properties of diamond, especially its extreme hardness and resistance to wear, which exceed by tens of thousands of times the properties of industrial abrasive materials, make possible the use of diamond tools for the processing of hard alloys (including low-workability and heat-resistant alloys), various structural materials (optical fused quartz glass, ceramics, pyroceramics, and ferrites), and building materials (concrete, marble, and granite), as well as porcelain, crystal, and precious stones. The performance of diamond cutting tools as compared to tools equipped with other materials is characterized by minimal cutting forces, lower power consumption, and lower temperature in the cutting zone. The quality of the treated surfaces is distinguished by great precision and low roughness (∇13–∇14).

To increase the efficiency of diamond cutting tools, diamond working is accompanied by the application of an electric current (electrolytic grinding or diamond-cathode treatment) or ultrasonic vibrations (ultrasonic grinding).

The use of diamond tools, especially those made from synthetic diamonds, sharply reduces the cost of production as a result of an increase in tool durability, improved quality of the work, increased reliability and life of the parts, and increased operating efficiency.