Manufacturing Process and Processing Characteristics of PCD Cutter

One of the key manufacturing technologies of PCD cutting tool lies in the grinding quality of cutting edge. The lack of ideal grinding process and technology for high-quality tool head materials will result in waste of resources. The adoption of good grinding process will improve the product quality of tools and reduce the use-cost as well.

PCD material is made by sintering special treated diamond and a small amount of binder under high temperature and high pressure. The diamond grains which arrange randomly make PCD features uniform, high hardness and wear resistance. PCD can be used for cutting cutter, grinding wheel dressing, geological drilling, measuring head, drawing mould, sanding mould, etc. However, the high hardness and wear resistance of PCD materials also lead to great difficulties in processing.

Researchers have done a lot of research and experiments on PCD materials, including EDM, ultrasonic machining, electrochemical machining, laser machining and so on. However, the comprehensive analysis shows that these processing technologies are mostly suitable for rough machining of PCD materials. In order to obtain good quality of PCD cutting edge, the most ideal processing method is grinding or grinding with diamond wheel.

The grinding process of PCD is mainly the mixture of mechanical and thermochemical effects. The mechanical effect is the micro breaking, wearing, falling off or cleavage of diamond caused by the continuous impact of diamond wheel abrasive on PCD material; the thermochemical effect is the oxidized or graphitized diamond caused by high temperature formed when diamond wheel grinds PCD. The mixture of the two results in the removal of PCD materials.