Thermal and Kinetic Energy Influence on Diamonds during the Spraying of Diamond-Bronze Abrasive Coatings

Detonation spraying provides the ability to produce superabrasive diamond grinding tools. Especially the atmospheric conditions of the spraying process yield to a high production flexibility. However, oxygen atmosphere, thermal and kinetic energy during the detonation spraying have an impact on the processed diamond. Despite its importance for the tools performance, the influence of the spraying process on the diamond is not determined up to now.

The effect of the detonation spray process on the diamonds was identified by analytical measurements and process diagnostics. Differential thermal analysis, X‑Ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and friability-tests were used to verify surface reactions, residual stress behaviour, and the durability of the sprayed diamonds after exposure to the spraying process.

It was found that spraying process optimization can minimize deterioration appearances. The thermal and mechanical impact during the detonation processing can remain low enough to ensure a good reliability of the processed diamonds.

A good grinding performance of sprayed diamond-CuSn 85/15 composite tools was pointed out in grinding tests. Additionally, the grinding test results are correlated to vacuum sintered diamond-CuSn 85/15 tools.