Investigation on frictional wear of single crystal diamond against ferrous metals

• Frictional wear tests are proposed to imitate actual cutting process for researching on wear mechanisms of diamond.
• Graphitized degree is considered as a criterion for assessing diamond wear in experiments by Raman scattering analysis.
• The infrared thermometry and heat transfer theory are combined to be used for obtaining the interface temperature.
• Tool wear mechanisms of diamond tool in cutting of ferrous metals are discussed based on the experimental investigation.

It is well known that severe tool wear prevents diamond from cutting of ferrous metals. This paper presents a series of frictional wear experiments between diamond and steels in air ambient, to imitate the tool wear process in practical diamond cutting operation of ferrous metals. The wear morphology of workpiece surface was detected by scanning electron microscopy. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis was used to investigate the change in chemical composition of the work sample before and after the tests. Raman scattering analysis was performed to distinguish the transformation of crystal structure of the diamond specimens, simultaneously, the graphitized degree of diamond specimen was proposed as a criterion for assessing tool wear in orthogonal experiments. The experimental results revealed that the wear of diamond relies heavily on mechanical force and temperature, and the sliding speed and the carbon content of the workpiece materials exert relatively less effect on the diamond wear under the test condition. Moreover, tool wear mechanism was discussed based on the experimental results for the sake of expanding the application areas of ultra-precision diamond cutting.