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About Diamond Tools
A diamond tool is a cutting tool which contains diamond segments for cutting through a wide variety of materials which other cutting tools cannot. The
segments are composed of diamond crystals and powder metal which form the bond, or 'matrix', of the segments.
The bond is one
of the prime factors when selecting which tool to use for cutting a specific material depending on how hard, or abrasive, the material is. The bond is what decides the rate at
which the metallic powders wear down and expose new diamond crystals at the surface to maintain what would be considered a "sharp" edge.
For cutting hard materials, a
diamond blade with a soft bond would be needed. This means the metallic powders in the segments (teeth) of the diamond blade wear fast enough to release old, dull crystals,
exposing new diamond at the edges to continue cutting efficiently. Inversely, to cut a soft abrasive material like asphalt or freshly poured concrete, you would need to use a
diamond blade with a hard bond so that the segments do not wear down prematurely and the blade is not put to waste. Diamond is especially suited to cut highly abrasive
materials, such as ceramics. The diamonds used in these tools are synthetic or natural industrial diamond of different grain sizes and shapes.
Categories of Diamond Tools
Grinding Abrasion
Many diamond tools don't cut like a knife or saw blade, instead they grind. They usually have segments, or teeth, welded
to the "cutting" edge of the tool which contain exposed diamond crystals for grinding.
For example, with a diamond blade, the saw operator will push the blade through the
material. The blade will begin to cut through the material and the material being cut will begin the wearing process of the diamond blade, at the rate of which the blade
advances or the depth at which is being cut. The exposed diamonds will break into smaller pieces when cutting. Hard, dense materials will fracture the diamonds faster. As this
happens, the material being cut also wears down the metal bond through abrasion. Highly abrasive materials will wear the bond faster, exposing new diamond crystals to continue
cutting
PCD Cutting Tools
This would be similar to most other cutting tools. Polycrystaline diamond (refered to as PCD) is
formed in a large High Temperature-High Pressure (HT-HP) press. Forming an industural diamond wafer on a backing of carbide, or forming a 'vein' of diamond within a
carbide wafer or rod.
Most wafers are polished to a mirror finish then cut with an Electric Discharge Machine (EDM) into smaller workable segements that are brazed onto the
sawblade, reamer, drill or other tool. Often they are EDM machined and/or ground an additional time to finished specifiactions.
The veined products are usualy ground to
expose the vein of diamond along a cutting edge. Such as a drill, reamer, or
insert.
More Diamond Tool Types
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