Diamond is pure carbon in a cubic structure — the hardest of all known materials. Diamond tools benefit many industrial applications, including grinding, turning, sawing, lapping and wear resistance, enabling faster operation, extended tool life, and accurate tolerances of shape and size. Diamond used in industry is either natural (extracted from the ground, crushed and shaped to suit a particular requirement) or synthetic (man-made for a specific application). Diamond is graded according to its size, shape and friability.

Diamond Applications — Water Based Soluble

Diamond is used for cutting or grinding hard, brittle and abrasive materials, but it is not suitable for grinding high carbon steel — iron has an affinity for carbon (which is what diamond is) at high temperature. Diamond tools are used for grinding hard or very abrasive materials, such as:

CBN Applications — Oil Based Soluble

Cubic Boron Nitride (CBN) is man-made — a chemical bond of boron and nitrogen with a cubic lattice structure, produced under high temperature and pressure. Available in different grades and sizes, CBN is particularly designed for grinding hardened steels, and is second only to diamond in hardness. CBN is used for grinding high carbon steels (over 0.7%), such as:

Electro Plated Diamond Tools

Electro plating bonds Diamond/CBN particles to a steel blank using nickel as the bonding material. Electro plated tools cannot be dressed — the layer of nickel and Diamond/CBN follows exactly the given shape of the blank, which makes electro plated tools the best choice for profile grinding. They can also be re-plated: after the first use, the tool can be stripped and re-plated, giving an efficient and economic re-platable process.