PCD Form Tools
Recent years have seen the adoption of Polycrystalline Diamond
(PCD) form tools in many new applications. Characterised by their free cutting ability and long
life they are especially used in the wood work, plastic, automotive and aerospace industries. PCD is now the first choice for machining materials such
as MDF, laminated chipboards and many of the glass filled epoxy
resins, silica aluminium castings and MMCs. Hamilton Lichfield manufacture a complete range of these
tools the great majority of which are to customers' specific
requirements. The following notes offer a guide to the choice of
tools available and to our standard products.
PCD and PCBN ISO Tipped Inserts
Many modern materials such as high silicon aluminiums, glass
filled epoxy resins and even some hardened steels may now be machined
utilising the enormous benefits of polycrystalline diamond and cubic
boron nitride superabrasives. In order to make these superabrasive
cutting materials more 'user friendly', Hamilton Lichfield
manufacture tipped inserts which are interchangeable with the
conventional ISO range of tungsten carbide and ceramic cutting
inserts now found in most machining environments. Therefore, whenever
a change of workpiece may dictate the use of superabrasives the
appropriately tipped PCD/PCBN insert may now simply be fitted to the
current toolholders, with minimum machine downtime.
Diamond Tipped Twist Drills
These drills are making a large impact in the Aerospace and
Automative industries where carbon fibres, silica glass resins and
metal matrix composites are widely used. The full-helix, PCD drill
offers a tool life of between 10 and 50 times that of conventional
carbide equivalents when drilling abrasive non-ferrous high strength
materials. This extended life, together with increased machining
speeds and feeds will lead to substantial increases in productivity
and reduced machine downtime. Significant additional benefits are
consistent surface finishes and the maintenance of tight size
tolerances over the whole working life of the tool
Single Point Dressing Tools
Hamilton Lichfield manufacture a wide range of Single Point
Dressing (S.P.D.) tools to suit every possible application and
compliment this by offering a rapid resetting service for used
Dressers. The diamonds used fall into one of two quality bands,
General (G) and Precision (P). A General quality diamond will have
points which are slightly more rounded than those on Precision
quality stones. They may also contain flaws or defects although these
will be away from the dressing point. 'G' quality Dressers are
suitable for almost all workshop use, 'P' quality Dressers need only
be specified when a very sharp point is required for fine
dressing.
Impregnated Cluster Tools
Randomly impregnated diamond cluster tools have proven their cost
effectiveness in the truing and dressing of abrasive wheels for many
years. However, although far from a new concept, the continued
development of diamond and bond combinations has meant that the
impregnated tool still has an important role to play in modern
grinding. It is particularly effective for the more severe and
dimensionally less demanding applications. Hamilton Lichfield
manufacture a range of these tools which have been designed to cope
with a variety of common dressing operations where they supersede the
traditional single point dressing tools.
|
s
Hand-set multipoint diamond cluster tools are manufactured in many
differing shapes and sizes to cater for a variety of applications
ranging from general machine shop usage to precision grinding. The
Hamilton Lichfield range is detailed in the data sheet, however this
only represents a selection of the most commonly used types, any
variation or special tool can be manufactured on request.
Precision Blade Dressing Tool
Hamilton Lichfield manufacture a well proven range of Precision
Blade (PB) and Precision Needle Blade (PNB) tools which may be used
on all straight pass and all but the most exacting profile dressing
operations. These tools have been shown to provide considerable cost
savings over conventional tooling such as expensive chisel tools,
both in initial cost and in machine down times.
Synthetic Diamond Dressing Tools 
Tooling containing the latest dressing materials to answer today's
precision grinding problems:
- Monodress (Monocrystalline
Synthetic Diamond)
- CVD (Synthetic diamond by
Chemical Vapour Deposition)
- TSP (Thermally Stable
Polycrystalline Diamond)
Available in most dresser designs.
Diamond Wear Parts
Historically diamond wear parts were manufactured using natural or synthetic grit diamond, sintered into heavy metal matrix. The development of PCD has enabled us to produce work rest blades, V blocks and bearing faces from this new super hard diamond product.
|
