With the progress and development of the times, people’s production and manufacturing levels have undergone earth-shaking changes. Sometimes the electroplated diamond and CBN tools can’t meet some requirement, i.e. cost control, production efficiency, etc. So more and more people dispute that what is the essential difference between vacuum brazed and electroplated diamond CBN tools.
What is the difference between them, please let me have the honor to analyze this in this article.
Before analyzing the difference between vacuum brazed & electroplated diamond and CBN tools, let us glance at the producing methods. For the electroplated diamond tools, the process is to put the diamond and CBN tools’ body into the electroplated liquid, then use the electrochemistry process to let Nickel hold diamond onto the steel body. During the whole plated process, the temperature is low.
For vacuum brazed diamond and CBN tools, the producing process is different. The first step is to use some medium splice the diamond grain or CBN on the steel body, then put it into the vacuum stove. In the stove, it is the process to spray the brazed medium on the steel body to hold the diamond grain or CBN. During the whole producing process, the temperature is very high.
From the different producing processes of vacuum brazed and electroplated diamond and CBN tools, we can know some difference.
Now, let me analyze further：
1.Production efficiency: During vacuum brazed process, every time around 1,000 pieces of workpieces can be processed in the vacuum stove, so the efficiency is very high.
While producing in electroplated method, it is just to put 1 piece of workpiece into the plated liquid channel every time, so we can see the production efficiency is really low.
2.Body choice: Due to huge different temperature during the process, for the vacuum brazed diamond and CBN tools, high temperature resistance materials is used as the body, i.e. steel,TC,etc.
While for the electroplated diamond and tools, some low melting point metal is used as the body.
3.Grit choice: For vacuum brazed production process, if choosing fine diamond grit(below 400#), the brazed medium in the vacuum stove will cover the diamond grain or CBN very quickly. That is to say the fine size grit diamond or CBN tools can not be made in the method of vacuum brazed way.
While in electroplated way, there is no such problem.
4.Accuracy: We must know, along with the increasing of the temperature, the metal materials will undergo significant deformation, so if we make diamond and CBN tools by vacuum brazed way, we can’t achieve high accuracy.
While producing the electroplated method, there is no deformation and high accuracy can be obtained.
5.Deformation problem: If you make small size diamond tools in the vacuum brazed way, like workpieces with large aspect ratios( the diameter is very small) and super thin, the deformation will occur and the shape of tools will change because of the high temperature .
While in electroplated process, there is no deformation.
6.Diamond or CBN holding strength: For vacuum brazed producing, the manufacturer can adjust the vacuum brazed medium, or use different vacuum brazed medium to change the diamond or CBN holding strength, or sometimes by increasing the brazed layer to improve the diamond grain or CBN holding strength.
While in electroplated process, there is no way out to increase the holding strength of the diamond grain/CBN.