Solid diamond micro-grinding tools: From innovative design and fabrication to preliminary performance evaluation in Ti-6Al-4V

To address the limitations associated with variances in the geometric characteristics of diamond abrasives and their typical stochastic distribution on the surfaces of conventional diamond tools, a novel energy beam ablation method has been successfully developed enabling the generation of arrays of abrasive-like micro-features of identical size, shape, crystallographic orientation and spacing into solid diamond structures. The incorporation of an indexing rotary stage into an ND:YAG Q-switched pulse laser used for the ablation work has enabled the production of innovative precision rotary micro-grinding tools utilising thick film CVD diamond. Comparative grinding performance assessments employing a precision 4-axis micro-machine for the machining of Ti-Al-4V have shown that the laser generated diamond micro-grinding tools produce significantly superior surface finishes to the dimensionally equivalently conventional diamond electroplated micro-grinding tools. In addition to demonstrating the robustness of grinding tools produced from solid diamond, the tests have highlighted the advantages of the layout of cutting elements which significantly extended the operating life of the tool through the even distribution of load across the cutting elements and efficient workpiece chip disposal.