×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Composite machining: Diamond or Diamondlike coating?
2

Composite machining: Diamond or Diamondlike coating?

Composite machining: Diamond or Diamondlike coating?

(OP)
Hello all,

I need to make some machining on carbon/epoxy composite parts, so i have to buy some diamond-coated endmills. I found two types of coatings in the catalogs: diamond and diamondlike coatings, with diamondlike being half the price of diamond. Has anyone already tried diamondlike-coated tools and if so, were you satisfied with it? Should I prefer the diamond-coated tools? Thanks for your input!  

RE: Composite machining: Diamond or Diamondlike coating?

You will probably get better tool life from PCD (poly-crystalline diamond) coatings. However, a lot depends on the base material and the coater.

If it's a tungsten carbide tool being coated then the coating process can damage the cobalt binder, which results in a lack of sharpness and the resulting tool can start to give unexceptable results before the base carbide one, or tool breakages may increase. It's important for the base carbide manufacturer and the coater to be close (or the same entity).

A lot also depends on what exactly you're machining. Not only is carbon a bit worse than glass fiber (and both are a lot harder on cutters and drills than any monolithic metal workpiece), but apparently small details of the composite like the exact resin can make a significant difference. A weaker resin may well make it easy for the cutter to rip the material apart.

I suspect that the only way to tell for sure what your tool wear rates are is try it and see.

Alas, I can't share numbers, but PCD has been preferred for some operations where thickness has been being reduced (rather than a profile being machined) on a cost basis.
 

RE: Composite machining: Diamond or Diamondlike coating?

generally speaking... Diamond like can be redressed and coated.  true diamond cannot.

this is a cost-per-hole type problem as i find coatings make very little difference to quality.

You may have to buy some of each and compare prices accordingly.
 

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources