Cutting polycrystalline diamond

A wide range of cutting-tool materials is available. Properties, performance capabilities, and cost vary widely (2,7). Various steels (see Steel) cast cobalt alloys (see Cobalt and cobalt alloys) cemented, cast, and coated carbides (qv) ceramics (qv), sintered polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (cBN) (see Boron compounds) and sintered polycrystalline diamond tbin diamond coatings on cemented carbides and ceramics and single-crystal natural diamond (see Carbon) are all used as tool materials. Most tool materials used in the 1990s were developed during the twentieth century. The tool materials of the 1990s... 

Cemented tungsten carbides also find use as a support for polycrystalline diamond (PCD) cutting tips, or as a matrix alloy with cobalt, nickel, copper, and iron, ia which diamond particles are embedded. These tools are employed ia a variety of iadustries including mineral exploration and development oil and gas exploration and production and concrete, asphalt, and dimension stone cutting. 

PDC bits get their name from the polycrystalline diamond compacts used for their cutting structure. The technology that led to the production of STRATAPAX drill blanks grew from the General Electric Co. work with polycrystalline manufactured diamond materials for abrasives and metal working tools. General Electric Co. researched and developed the STRATAPAX (trade... 

The section describes the first lADC standardized system for dull grading natural diamond, PDC, and TSP (thermally stable polycrystalline diamond) bits, otherwise known as fixed cutter bits [55]. The new system is consistent with the recently revised dull grading system for roller bits. It describes the condition of the cutting structure, the primary (with location) and secondary dull characteristics, the gage condition, and the reason the bit was pulled. 

Cubic Phase of Boron Nitride c-BN. The cubic phase of boron nitride (c-BN) is one of the hardest materials, second only to diamond and with similar crystal structure. It is the first example of a new material theoretically predicted and then synthesized in laboratory. From automated synthesis a microcrystalline phase of cubic boron nitride is recovered at ambient conditions in a metastable state, providing the basic material for a wide range of cutting and grinding applications. Synthetic polycrystalline diamonds and nitrides are principally used as abrasives but in spite of the greater hardness of diamond, its employment as a superabrasive is limited by a relatively low chemical and thermal stability. Cubic boron nitride, on the contrary, has only half the hardness of diamond but an extremely high thermal stability and inertness. 

Hardmetals are also used as a support for polycrystalline diamond cutting tips, or as matrix alloy for diamond grit, used in rock drilling and oil mining [9.2]. 

Axinte D, Srinivasu DS, Kong MC, Butler-Smith PW (2009) Abrasive waterjet cutting of polycrystalline diamond a preliminary investigation. Int J Mach Tools Manuf 49(10) 797-803... 

FIGURE 9.9 Polycrystalline diamond (PCD) tool blanks and finished cutting tools. 

Diamond, as single crystal or as a polycrystalline compact (PCD) is an excellent cutting material but is expensive and requires closely controlled speed and absence of chatter and vibration for optimum performance.PI It has limited oxidation resistance as it begins to oxidize in dry-grinding operations between 500 and 700°C, and the use of coolant is recommended to remain below these tern-... 

The polycrystalline derivatives of diamond and cBN, normally referred to as pcD and pcBN respectively, provide engineers with materials which have many of the properties of diamond and cBN, notably hardness and abrasion resistance, but in the form of relatively large isotropic pieces, usually in the form of flat discs. These materials have a wide variety of uses, both as a defined edge cutting tool... 

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