What Is The Development Direction Of Diamond Products

What is the direction of new product development for diamond and other superhard material products?

 

According to the information provided by the president of Osaka Diamond Industry Co., Ltd. Oura Guiyi, the world's superabrasive tool market consumption has reached 3.3 billion US dollars, of which the stone and construction industries account for nearly half, reaching 49.4%; abrasive tools account for about 30%; composite polycrystalline tools accounted for 18.2%. As for abrasive tools, CBN abrasive tools account for 28% of the total abrasive tools. Compared with the world market, it is obvious that the proportion of the domestic market is quite different from it. First, the proportion of stone and construction tools in my country is as high as 70% to 80%, which is much higher than the proportion of the international market; second: abrasive tools, CBN The proportion of abrasive tools is low.

The reason is that the proportion is too high because there are few high-grade diamonds in my country, so many stone tools can only be replaced by low-grade diamonds, resulting in low service life of saw blades and other tools; or in order to achieve a certain tool life, increase the diamond concentration , so it is not the reason why my country's stone construction industry is particularly developed. Second, because the abrasive tools used for processing cast iron and steel in my country are still ordinary abrasive tools, the amount of CBN abrasive tools is very limited, and can only be regarded as the initial stage at best. Therefore, this area has great potential for development.

What is the development direction of new superhard material products in the next few years? We should conduct careful research on the following aspects, learn from foreign use information, find out the domestic market demand, and formulate a practical development plan.

 

Automobile industry (including some other power machinery, etc.)

For quite a long period of time in the future, the automobile industry will always be a pillar industry of the national economy and achieve relatively high-speed development. The development of the automobile industry depends on the improvement of the level of automobile equipment and processing technology, especially the advanced level of processing tools (including cutting tools and grinding tools) corresponding to the numerical control of machine tools. Efforts to develop advanced superhard material cutting tools and abrasive tools that are indispensable for auto parts processing are the needs of the abrasives and abrasives industry to adapt to the development of the auto industry and promote its own development.

Aiming at the current situation of my country's automobile industry, drawing on the mature experience of developed countries, we should mainly develop: CBN grinding discs for processing piston rings; CBN grinding wheels (including resin ceramic bond) for processing high-precision and high-wear bearings; PCBN for processing various cast iron parts Cutting tool grinding tools, honing tools; small hole grinding heads for processing various hydraulic parts; various diamond grinding wheels and set drills for processing glass such as car window glass and automobile rearview mirror; diamond grinding wheels for processing plastics, rubber and other non-metallic materials; CPD tools for processing aluminum alloy parts; diamond dressing rollers for various purposes, etc.

 

Processing of hard and brittle non-metallic materials

This scope is very wide, and the focus should still be on the building materials industry, road transportation facilities and other industries closely related to infrastructure construction. In terms of materials alone, the focus can be placed on the processing of wear-resistant floor tiles, glass ceramics, etc.

The domestic wear-resistant floor tile industry has introduced more than 100 advanced production lines (mainly from Italy, Germany, and Japan) in recent years, and the matching flat grinding rollers, grinding wheels, edging wheels, and chamfering wheels all need to be localized. This market has broad prospects and is relatively difficult. According to relevant statistics, there are hundreds of floor tile manufacturers in a certain coastal province. In 1997, the imported and processed floor tile grinding wheels exceeded 100 million yuan. There are thousands of floor tile enterprises in the country, and the output of wall and floor tiles reached 90 million in 1995. The development trend of this industry is that glazed tiles are gradually replaced by wear-resistant floor tiles. Therefore, the processing volume of floor tiles is increasing, and the industry has great potential. Although many diamond product factories have developed grinding wheels for processing floor tiles in recent years, they are not mature enough.

The glass industry should focus on the processing of flat glass for various purposes, because it has a large volume and a wide range, and the focus is on breaking through the diamond grinding wheels used in flat glass leveling, grinding, chamfering, arc grinding and polishing, etc., to achieve the processing efficiency specified on imported automatic production lines , The life of the precision grinding wheel requires great enthusiasm and human capital from the industry to make a difference. Lighting glass processing has also developed greatly in recent years. The situation in this industry is uneven. There are both very advanced automatic processing equipment and relatively backward manual grinding equipment. The number of glass parts that need to be processed for lamps and lanterns ranges from a few pieces to tens of thousands or even There are more than 100,000 pieces, so we should develop diamond processing tools with different purposes, different quality levels, and different price grades according to market needs.

Ceramic materials have developed rapidly, from being mainly used as living materials in the past to industrial materials, tool materials and engineering materials. Ceramic materials cannot be processed without diamond. Although the application of precision ceramics in our country has just started, according to the development trend, it will be widely used in the 21st century and become an important member of the new material industry. Therefore, on the basis of experience in processing domestic ceramics and electronic ceramics, efforts should be made to develop new diamond processing tools to solve the problems of precision ceramic processing.

 

Processing of wood products and plastic products

The wood processing and furniture industry has used a large number of automated machine tools to replace traditional manual methods. In addition, wood processing produces waste materials such as sawdust, shavings, short timber, and some branches and miscellaneous trees trimmed from forestry resources, which are crushed and then added to plastics. The binder, then undergoes a series of treatments to make "recycled material", which is more difficult to process than raw wood.

Therefore, two requirements arise:

First, the automated processing of wood and plastic products requires the use of many types of carbide or high-speed steel cutting tools. Due to the poor thermal conductivity of wood and plastic, cutting tools are easily blunt or deformed under high-speed processing, so the replacement or grinding of cutting tools becomes more frequent. For this reason, diamond CBN series grinding wheels specially used for woodworking and plastic cutting tools have been produced. There are 97 shapes and 173 specifications (including size and particle size) of diamond grinding wheels for woodworking cutting tools grinding, and 20 shapes and 28 specifications of cutting tools grinding wheels for processing plastic products. Many domestic wood and plastic industries have introduced or imitated advanced production lines, and tool manufacturers have put forward many orders for grinding wheels.

Second, diamond or CBN composite polycrystalline tools for woodworking and plastic industries have also been put on the agenda, especially PCD cutting tools for wood floor processing, which have been used in a considerable amount in China (mainly in Yunnan, Sichuan and Northeast China), so the development PCD tooling for forest product processing is also a priority.

 

Trim tool development

Dressing tools are basically unavailable products in the industry. In the initial stage of large-scale production in the industry, there are still several factories producing products such as diamond dressing pens. Currently, except for a few units producing dressing rollers, the rest of the dressing tools industry is almost blank.

Looking through foreign product samples, you can see that almost all superhard material products companies produce diamond dressing tools. Taking winter company as an example, the company produces two types of dressing tools: multi-point and single-point, and its multi-point has 17 models in four varieties: Fliese, Igel, pro-dress, and Rondist. There are 23 types of single-point types including Single-point, one-way, and profile. It is suitable for various purposes and various grinding methods, including the shaping and dressing of abrasive tools on grinding machines.

The reason why domestic dressing tools cannot form a product series in the industry may have a lot to do with our undeveloped natural diamond products. In addition, the low degree of automation of domestic grinding machines is also one of the reasons. Many users buy large-grain diamonds and weld them by brazing. Dressing tools (single grain), this may not be a big problem for general grinders, but certainly not for automated processing equipment. When diamond is used for making dressing tools, natural diamond, synthetic single crystal or polycrystalline diamond, or even composite polycrystalline diamond can be used according to different purposes, so it is fully qualified to be used in the industry.

 

Application development of various polycrystalline products

According to the data provided by GE in 1994, the annual consumption of PCD, PCBN cutting tools, PCD wire drawing dies, and PCD mining drilling tools in the world's superhard abrasive products market reached 603 million US dollars in 1993, accounting for 18.2% of the total product consumption, which is enough It shows that its market capacity is large and its development prospect is broad. In recent years, domestic PCD and PCBN products have made great progress, but the market share is still very small. The main reasons are: single variety, it is difficult to adapt to the changing needs of the market; domestic equipment cannot adapt to the use of such tools; the supply and demand sides lack communication and cooperation, understanding The level lags; there are still certain problems in the processing of composite polycrystalline tools, especially in grinding.

The development of composite polycrystalline tools can take the path of "easy first and then difficult". For example, PCD/PCBN turning tools for processing various materials can be developed first, because the shape of turning tools is relatively simple, and domestic lathes (including ordinary lathes and CNC lathes) are basically suitable. Using PCD/PCBN turning tools, the main objects to be processed are cast iron, hardened steel, aluminum alloy, carbon fiber and other materials. The processing is not difficult and the processing effect is very significant, so it is easy for users to accept. Mining and oil and gas drilling tools require high-quality PCD, and the production of tools is very difficult, with high technical content and high price level. It is a high-tech product, so it is necessary to work hard on the quality of PCD manufacturing. Breakthroughs can be invested in tool development.

In the 20th century, my country's superabrasives industry has grown from scratch, from small to large, and has achieved world-renowned achievements, making contributions to my country's economic development and scientific and technological progress. In the 21st century, we should strengthen our confidence, seize the opportunity, grasp the direction, and strive to develop, so that the industry will change from big to strong, so that my country will truly become a major producer and exporter of superhard abrasive products, and create brilliant achievements for the world's economic development and scientific and technological progress.