Wear of Metal-Bonded Diamond Tools in Different Abrasive Processes

In this present work, an experimental study was carried out to investigate the wear of metal-bonded diamond tools (specimens) in five abrasive processes – stirring diamond specimens in rock slurries and surface grinding the specimens with a vitrified alumina wheel as well as circular sawing of refractory bricks, vitrified silicon carbide wheels and natural granite with segmented diamond blades. Three diamond specimens of different hardness were fabricated by hot pressing. In addition to following the worn morphologies of the diamond tools, forces and power were also monitored in four abrasive processes. During stirring and surface grinding, the wear of the diamond specimens decreased with increasing specimen hardness, whereas the vertical force in surface grinding increased with the specimen hardness. In sawing of granite, however, the wear of the blades was closely related to the vertical force generated in sawing rather than the hardness of the diamond segments. The trends of force changes in sawing of refractory bricks were comparable to those in sawing of granite. But the force ratios in sawing of the SiC wheel were found to be much higher than those in sawing of other two materials.