Polishing of Single Point Diamond Tool Based on Thermo–Chemical Reaction with Copper

Abstract

The mechanical polishing of diamond cutting tools has the fault of generating micro cracks on the diamond surface. Therefore, the polishing based on thermo–chemical reaction has been discussed. A diamond specimen in contact with a copper was heated at the different temperature from 323K to 523K in air, and then the erosion rate and the change in its fracture strength were examined. Arrhenius plot of experimental results showed that the decrease in erosion rate was very linear with decrease in temperature. Moreover, the experimental results showed that the fracture strength increased finally although it decreased once as the heating time increased. Consequently, it is expected that the thermo–chemical polishing has the marked effect on the improvement of the resistance to wear.