Historical developments and future prospects of saw diamond

摘要

More than 1 000 tons of saw diamond grits were consumed worldwide in 2007. Even with such a mature industry, there are still major improvements possible in developing new grits. The DiaCanTM technology with patterned diamond seeding can boost the production yield of coarse mesh diamonds (e. g. 30/40). Moreover, the DiaMind crystals formed contain a visible core. This diamond-in-diamond architecture allows self-sharpening during sawing application. Furthermore, a revolutionary polycrystalline diamond superabrasive with cubical shape was fabricated to further increase the sawing efficiency and tool longevity. Such DiaCubeTM polygrits were made tools by brazing them on pearls of wire saws and on the surface of turbo grinders.The pros and cons of major designs of high-pressure equipment for diamond synthesis were discussed with the recommendation to combine the merits of belt apparatus and cubic press. This tooling synergism may increase diamond yield at reduced cost for massive production of saw grits.In 1997 Sung Chien-Min filed a series US patents that described the art of making patterned diamond tools with diamond grits forming an array in three dimensions. He also made the debut of the world' s first brazing tools with patterned diamond distribution at the stone exhibition in Verona in 1998 (also in Nuremberg in 1999). The patterned diamond saws were introduced by Korean companies in 2005 with the demonstration of increased cutting speeds and prolonged tool lives.