Element Six coated
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+80 Mesh Diamond Grit Products Extending tool life Element Six coatings range The reasons for using coatings Protective coatings are a technology developed by Element Six to enhance synthetic diamond retention in the bonding matrix and to protect the surface of synthetic diamond crystals in the sintering process. Improving synthetic diamond retention keeps tools working at peak efficiency and extends tool life. Protective coatings also shield the synthetic diamond during the sintering process, allowing higher temperature sintering for either better bonding metallurgy or the use of cheaper bonding materials. Coated synthetic diamond recovered after sintering. Uncoated synthetic diamond recovered after sintering. * Please ask your Element Six representative to provide our appropriate customer case studies. At high sintering temperatures in aggressive metal bonds, the exposed surface of a synthetic diamond may be degraded by graphitisation. This can reduce the strength of the synthetic diamond particle and weaken the holding power of the matrix or bond. A protective coating prevents this graphitisation. Protective coatings enable the use of lower cost matrix materials. Materials used in a bonding matrix can account for nearly 50% of tool price. That makes raw material costs, which have been increasing year on year (see Figure 1), a major factor in cost control. So coatings help tool makers to resist the impact of escalating metal bond costs. In fact, Element Six customers* have demonstrated between 10% and 20% reduction in the cost of raw materials used for bonding and sintering. Advantages of coatings in the sintering process Enhancing diamond retention yields many performance advantages. Tool life can be extended by up to 50% or cutting rates can be increased by 50% for the same tool life. In a number of instances, Element Six customers* have realised both extended life and cutting rate improvements. Using a coating may also enhance the crystal protrusion for faster, cleaner cutting. Additionally, this improved cutting performance could be used to reduce tool power consumption. The key to all these important benefits is the ability to create a coating that exactly complements the composition of the bonding matrix. Element Six Precise Requirement provides the know-how, the facilities and the collaborative approach to define that ideal match between coating and matrix. Precise Requirement is also a co-development policy designed to maximise cost and performance benefits for both tool manufacturers and their customers. Experience with over 50 customers shows collaboration is required to achieve optimal benefits. To deliver these benefits our testing facility works in parallel with customer in-house capability. Advantages of enhanced synthetic diamond retention Our PRECISE REQUIREMENT delivers an optimised coating and matrix match A protective coating is chemically bonded to each synthetic diamond particle. In the sintering process this coating forms a metallurgical bond with the surrounding matrix. Element Six offers a range of coating for all bonding and sintering techniques. The use of coatings gives rise to several areas of saving and performance improvement. For example, the use of coatings can eliminate the need to use a vacuum furnace by allowing brazing to be performed in air.

The Active Coated Series The active coating technology employed in the manufacturing of this coated series results in a strong chemical bond between the synthetic diamond surface and the coating. This ensures that the formation of the coating to synthetic diamond bonding is not dependent on any subsequent thermal process such as sintering. The net result is a greater freedom of choice of sintering conditions and bond composition for tool manufacture. The series comprises of five different active coatings designed to ensure compatibility across a wide range of tool applications, bond...