Horn's CVD Thick-film Diamond Tools

Recently Horn has expanded its product program to include CVD thick-film diamond tools.

The CVD cutting material is harder than PCD and twice as wear-resistant. Because of this and its other properties, CVD delivers various benefits when milling and turning from rough machining to micro milling of long-chipping aluminum and magnesium alloys, high-silica aluminum as well as of precious metal alloys, plastics with abrasive fillers, tungsten carbide and ceramic green compacts.

The long tool life of diamond tools combined with an optimized chip-breaker on the CVD diamond cutter can increase machining productivity by up to 35 per cent and reduce processing costs by up to 80 per cent. For high performance machining and continuous turning applications, various inserts with wiper geometries were developed.

Laser equipment is used to cut out the segments from the CVD-D blanks; these are then attached to the one-cutter inserts or milling cutters by brazing under vacuum. The chip-breakers and cutting edges are also laser formed.

The undulating-chip breaker reduces contact of the chip with the insert surface, which considerably reduces heat formation and energy consumption. The extreme chip angle of up to 25° produces a soft cut and reduces burr formation to a minimum. This increases tool life compared to PCD cutters.

In addition the controlled chip break guarantees process reliability, the reduced cutting force protects the spindle and allows the narrowest of tolerances even with delicate components. The sharp blade offers special advantages in processing CFRP, GFR and their composites.--iAbrasive report