Performance of single crystal diamond tools in ductile mode cutting of silicon

In this study, ductile mode cutting of silicon wafer materials has been carried out using an ultra-precision lathe with single crystal diamond cutters and the wear characteristics of the tool and the effect of its different diamond crystal orientations were investigated. Experimental results indicated that wear occurred mainly on the flank face of the tool and the wear pattern was typically mechanical abrasive wear, adhesive wear and possible thermo-chemical wear. At higher cutting distance, crater wear with small grooves in the vicinity of cutting edge was observed on the tool rake face. However, given the highly anisotropic nature in properties of diamond, wear resistance of a diamond tool varies with the crystal planes as well as crystal directions on the same plane. From this study, it is found that in terms of tool flank wear (VBmax) resistance, the tool life of the diamond cutter with crystal orientations {1 0 0} as the rake and {1 1 0} as the flank planes, was much longer than those of the diamond cutters with other crystal orientations as the rake and flank planes.