Ferrous alloys, hardness range

Metal conductive fibers are very thin filaments with diameters ranging from 1 to 80 pm produced fi om conductive metals such as ferrous alloys, nickel, stainless steel, titanium, alumimun and copper. Since they are different from pol5mieric fibers, they may be hard to process and have problems of long-term stability. These highly conductive fibers are expensive, brittle, heavier and lower processability than most textile fibers. 

The greatest use of cubic boron nitride is as an abrasive under the name Bora2on, in the form of small crystals, 1—500 p.m in si2e. Usually these crystals are incorporated in abrasive wheels and used to grind hard ferrous and nickel-based alloys, ranging from high speed steel tools and chilled cast-iron to gas turbine parts. The extreme hardness of the crystals and their resistance to attack by air and hot metal make the wheels very durable, and close tolerances can be maintained on the workpieces. 

A synthetic or man-made diamond material is now available which is extremely tough with a hardness approaching that of natural diamond. A layer of this synthetic diamond material is bonded to a tough shock-resisting base of cemented carbide for use in the form of tips. The range of application is on non-ferrous metals such as aluminium alloys, magnesium alloys, copper, brass, bronze and zinc alloys and non-metallic materials such as ceramics, porcelain and plastics. This material will also machine fully sintered tungsten carbide. 

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