Diamond Micro-Powder: Multifunctional Grinding Solution for Green Manufacturing

Diamond micro-powder is a high-performance superhard material made from high-purity single crystal diamond at the micron or sub-micron level, through a series of physical and chemical processing techniques such as crushing, shaping, and grading. These micropowder particles have a highly uniform morphology and strictly controlled particle size distribution, ensuring their excellent performance in precision machining. As one of the most precise superhard abrasives currently available worldwide, diamond micro-powder is widely used in various fields such as mechanical processing, electronics manufacturing, metallurgy, construction engineering, and defense technology.

Its applications are diverse, ranging from use as a loose abrasive in grinding and polishing processes to manufacturing various efficient grinding and polishing products such as grinding paste, grinding discs, precision grinding discs, honing stones, polishing liquids, polycrystalline diamond compacts, and diamond sandpaper. Due to its ultra-high hardness, excellent wear resistance, and thermal stability, diamond micro-powder exhibits irreplaceable advantages, especially in high-precision machining, processing of superhard materials, and processes requiring extremely high surface quality. Hence, it has become an indispensable important material in the field of high-precision manufacturing.

Classification of Diamond Micro-Powder

Based on differences in crystal structure, diamond micro-powder can generally be divided into two major categories: the dominant single crystal diamond micro-powder and the less common polycrystalline (or polycrystal) diamond micro-powder. Single crystal diamond micro-powder has higher hardness and stronger wear resistance, suitable for most conventional precision machining scenarios. In contrast, polycrystalline diamond micro-powder, due to its polycrystalline structure, has better toughness and auto-sharpening fracture properties, making it advantageous in ultra-precision machining and the grinding and polishing of special materials.

Moreover, according to particle size and grading methods, diamond micro-powder can be further subdivided into ordinary micropowder, fine micropowder, and ultra-fine micropowder. Ordinary micropowder is generally used for rough processing, surface treatment, and some conventional polishing applications. Fine micropowder is widely used in high-precision grinding and polishing processes to ensure higher processing quality. Ultra-fine micropowder is specifically used for nano-level ultra-high precision machining and optical surface polishing, meeting extremely strict processing tolerance and surface finish requirements.

Main Applications and Solutions of Diamond Micro-Powder

Currently, the main applications of diamond micro-powder are concentrated in resin grinding discs, wire saws, ceramic binder tools, and electroplated tools. With the rapid development of the diamond tool industry, the refined classification of diamond micro-powder has also become increasingly stringent and detailed, and the particle size of the micropowder used in these tools is gradually trending finer. However, despite continuous advances in ultra-fine diamond micro-powder technology, the demand for these fine particle size micropowders in the diamond tool industry remains relatively low, leading to considerable inventory overstock of fine particle size diamond micro-powders.

To address this issue, two solutions are currently available. First, enhance the demand for fine particle size diamond micro-powder within the diamond tool industry. This requires technological innovation across the industry, especially in the development of ultra-high precision processing tools, to fully realize the potential of fine particle size diamond micro-powder. Second, develop alternative application pathways for fine particle size diamond micro-powder. For example, agglomeration techniques can be used to aggregate fine particle size diamond micro-powder into larger particle size clusters to expand its application scope, allowing for effective utilization in more processing scenarios.