Characteristics of electroplated diamond tools

The structure of the electroplated diamond tool can be seen that it consists of three parts: the matrix, the coating (mostly nickel plated) and the abrasive. Among them, abrasives are dispersed in metal coating and form working layer together, which plays a grinding role. The matrix has certain geometrical shape, dimensional accuracy and surface roughness to support the plating.

 

Electroplated diamond tools have the following characteristics:

 

1 Structural characteristics
Electroplated diamond tools only have two parts, steel base and plating working layer. The deposited metal thickness of electroplating is generally 1/2~2/3 of diamond diameter, which is very thin compared with sintered diamond tools (except brazing tools).

Due to the particularity of the electrodeposition process, various diamond tools with complex profiles or especially small and thin surfaces can be produced by electroplating with high precision.

 

2 Coating characteristics
The plating metal of electroplated diamond tools is formed by electrocrystallization. Under proper electroplating pretreatment and process control, the plating layer is very compact with little porosity. Therefore, the electroplated diamond tool is the most compact one of all abrasive tools (brazed diamond tool structure is also extremely compact), the coating has the most full contact with diamond particles and has a very strong holding force. It is because of the compact coating and the strong bonding to diamonds that high concentrations (up to 200% of embedded diamond in the coating) can be used without premature abrasive shedding, which is unmatched by diamond tools manufactured by other methods (except brazing).

As electroplated diamond tools are mostly made of nickel or nickel-cobalt alloys as binders and have compact structure, the plating hardness is very high even up to HRC40, which is significantly higher than other types of diamond tools. Therefore, electroplated diamond tools are particularly wear-resistant from a single layer point of view (next only to brazed diamond tools).

The diamond embedded in the coating can be randomly distributed and get high concentration by burying sand method, orderly arranged and artificially controlled. For the latter, the function of diamond can be better exerted, the chips can be removed and the grinding effect can be improved.

 

3 Use characteristics
Due to the high abrasive concentration of electroplated diamond tools, the machining efficiency of electroplated diamond tools is significantly higher than that of other tools at the same grinding speed. The wear resistance of plating tools is particularly high for working layers of the same thickness because of the large number of particles, the small load of single abrasive and the low wear.

 

As a result of wear resistance, the plating tools have good shape retention and high machining accuracy. Single-layer plating tool, high abrasive cutting edge, sharp cutting, easy chip removal, low friction and less heat.

In conclusion, the single layer electroplated diamond tools are characterized by high efficiency, high grinding ratio, good shape and accuracy retention, and high machining accuracy. However, because of the single layer, the total life is relatively low.

 

There are also multi-layer plated diamond tools, but due to the compact structure, high hardness and toughness of the plating, the tool has poor self-sharpness after the first layer of diamond is used up, which needs to be improved by increasing grinding force and coolant flow rate.

The manufacturing process of electroplated diamond tools is a low-temperature electrodeposition process and does not have adverse thermal effects on diamonds, so the quality of diamonds will not deteriorate in use, which is very advantageous for grinding.