SURfACE

&COATINIiS

ELSEVIER

HCHNOLOGY

Surface and Coatings Technology 73 (1995) 115-120

Application of diamond-coated cutting tools

K. Kanda a, S. Takehana a, S. Yoshida a, R. Watanabe a, S. Takano a, H. Ando b, F. Shimakura b

a

Research and Development Division, Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp., 20 Ishigane, Toyama City, Toyama 930, Japan
b Tools Division, Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp., 20Ishigane, Toyama City, Toyama 930, Japan

Received 29 April 1994; accepted in final form 30 September 1994

Abstract
Today, diamond-coated cutting tools are used primarily for machining non-ferrous materials such as aluminium-silicon alloys,
copper alloys, fibre-reinforced polymers, green ceramics and graphite. The tool life of cemented carbide cutting tools is greatly
improved by diamond coating, and typically more than 10 times the tool life is obtained. In this report we will present cutting
performances of diamond-coated inserts, twist drills, square end mills and ball nose end mills.
Diamond films are usually deposited more than 10 J.U11 thick to make tool life longer, since tool life is directly related to film
thickness. However, increased film thickness caused many problems with cutting performance. The most severe problem was the
decrease in the transverse rupture strength of the diamond-coated substrates. Because of this effect, the diamond-coated insert
used under high speed and intermittent cutting conditions was supposed to suffer chipping easily.
Keywords: Diamond-coated cutting tool; Insert; Twist drill; End mill; Cutting performance

1. Introduction

Diamond deposition on various substrates was origi

nally made feasible by the development of practical
chemical vapour deposition (CVD) diamond synthesis
techniques [1,2]. Since then diamond coating of cutting
tools has been one of the primary targets of CVD
diamond applications [3-5], because of its high hard
ness. Diamond is the best cutting tool material for
processing non-ferrous materials because of its high
hardness. However, it is not applicable for heavy duty
processing of ferrous materials because of its low oxida
tion temperature and tendency to dissolve carbon into
the surface of ferrous materials.
The demand for diamond-coated cutting tools is
increasing for two reasons. One reason is the utilization
of new materials such as hypereutectic aluminium
silicon alloys and fibre-reinforced polymers (FRPs) in
automobiles and electrical products, since these materials
are extremely abrasive and wear resistant. Another is
the never-ending demand for new cutting tools for high
precision and high productivity processing.
The major technical problem to be solved when using
CVD diamond in cutting tool applications was to obtain

* Presented at the 21st International Conference on

Metallurgical
Coatings and Thin Films, San Diego, CA, 25-29 April 1994.

0257-8972/95/$09.5001995 Elsevier Science SA All rights reserved

SSDl 0257-8972(94)02370-0

high adherence to the substrate material. This problem

was overcome at several companies and now many kinds
of diamond-coated cutting tools with sufficient adher
ence properties acceptable for practical use have become
commercially available [6]. In this study, the adhesion
strength of the diamond film was improved by the
following three methods. The first was the dissolution
of the metallic cobalt in the surface layer of the cemented
carbide substrate, because the cobalt enhances the for
mation of a graphite layer which lowers the adhesion
strength. The second was the scratching the substrate
surface with diamond powder. By this treatment, the
nucleation density of the diamond particles was greatly
enhanced and adhesion strength was increased. The
third was the choice of substrate materials. In this study,
the cemented carbide which did not contain titanium
carbide was chosen, since the titanium carbide which is
often added in the cemented carbide decreases the adhe
sion strength of the diamond film. The composition of
the cemented carbide used in this study was tungsten
carbide and 6% cobalt.
In this study, cutting tests were carried out with many
kinds of workpiece materials using diamond-coated
inserts, twist drills, square end mills and ball nose end
mills, which were deposited by hot filament CVD and
microwave plasma CVD processes. The typical composi
tion of the source gas used in these CVD processes was

K Kanda et al.jSurface and Coatings Technology 73 (1995) 115-120

116

1% methane and 99% hydrogen, and the maximum

deposition temperature was approximately 1073 K. The
performance of these diamond-coated cutting tools was
compared with that of conventional tools. In this report
we will present these results and discuss the problems
related to the utilization of diamond-coated cutting tools.
2. Performance of diamond-coated cutting tools
2.1. Inserts

Inserts were the first cutting tool used as a substrate

for diamond coating, because the shape was relatively
simple and therefore it was easy to deposit diamond
film on them. The simple shape of the inserts also lent
itself to evaluating cutting performances and other film
properties. The cutting performance of diamond-coated
inserts was tested by face milling and turning of A390,
which is a hypereutectic aluminium alloy containing
18% by weight of silicon. Although A390 has characteris
tics of high strength and low specific gravity, it is highly
abrasive owing to dispersed silicon particles in its struc
ture. Face milling was carried out on the A390 material
with the diamond-coated cemented carbide insert. The
type of insert was SPGN120308, without its cutting edge
chamfered. The thickness of the diamond film around
the cutting edges was about 25 Jlm. The size of the upper
surface of the workpiece was 95 mm x 500 mm. Two
slots of 10 mm width were cut lengthwise in the work
piece to simulate intermittent cutting. Cutting parame
ters were as follows: cutting speed, 330 m min -1; depth
of cut, 0.5 mm; feed rate, 0.5 mm rev-I; dry cutting. The
diameter of the milling cutter was 160 mm with one
diamond-coated insert on it. For c0!J1parison, face mill-

60

Work
:
Cut speed :
Depth of cut:
Feed rate
:

50

A390
330 m/min
n.5 mm
n.15 mm/rev

ing was also carried out with the same type of high
pressure polycrystalline diamond (PCD) insert, since
PCD inserts are thought to be the strongest competitor
for diamond-coated inserts.
The result of the face milling test is shown in Fig. 1.
From this figure, the wear rate of the diamond-coated
insert is found to be comparable with that of the peD
insert. The flank wear of the diamond-coated insert
became large compared with that of the PCD insert at
the beginning of the cut. This was due to the increased
roundness of the coated edge, since scars became large
at the edge radius and flank wear was scaled by measur
ing scars that appeared on the cutting edge.
A turning test was also carried out on the A390
material with the same type of diamond-coated insert
and a fine-grained PCD insert. The initial radius of the
A390 workpiece was 200 mm with four slots cut of
10 mm width along the axial direction to simulate
intermittent cutting. Cutting parameters were as follows:
cutting speed, 400 m min -I; depth of cut, 0.2 mm; feed
rate, 0.15 mm rev-I; dry cutting. This test lasted 240 min
without any trouble. The result showed approximately
the same wear tendency as that of face milling.
Although results are not shown in Fig. 1, the uncoated
cemented carbide inserts were also tested by face milling
and turning, but their flank wear exceeded 150 Jlm after
a 1 min cutting period.
In the case of the diamond-coated insert, which has
11 0 clearance angle and 25 Jlm film thickness, substrate
material is exposed after the flank wear exceeded approx
imately 40 Jlm. After that the end of tool life will come
soon, since the substrate material is worn away quickly
for A390 alloy. Therefore, the tool life of a diamond_
coated insert with ordinary film thickness will never be
greater than that of PCD. We believe the superiority of

Tip: SPGNI20308
Blade: 1 pc
Dry cut

DiatnOnd coat.\illn~g_-<::r-_-O-~~-:::~
J
;0

.b- - -

.t:r

--~-

~;o

-A--- ~---

20

10

r ....

A_;O

_...t:r - - l' CD

.A---~

I
I

50

100

150

200

Cutting lime (min)

Fig. 1. Wear characteristics of the diamond-coated and the PCD inserts.

250

117

K Kanda et al./Surface and Coatings Technology 73 (1995) 115-120

the diamond-coated insert over the PCD is in inserts

which have chip breakers or those with multiple comers.

12' r---,r---'--.-~-~-.,...--r-,.---r--,

e
::t

2.2. Twist drills

..".

Diamond-coated twist drills were used for processing

aluminium alloys, copper alloys, glass fibre reinforced
polymers (GFRPs), carbon fibre reinforced polymers,
graphite and semisintered ceramics with nominally more
than ten times the tool life of cemented carbide twist
drills. Typical data obtained from customers and our
testing are summarized in Table 1. Cutting performances
of the diamond-coated tools were compared with the
same type of uncoated tools. In these tests, water-soluble
emulsions were used as coolant for processing the cast
aluminium alloy ADC12 which contain 12% Si in its
matrix and the A390 alloy, and others were processed
without coolant. As shown in Table 1, better improve
ment in tool life was obtained for processing workpiece
materials which contain hard particles in their matrix.
High stability of size and quality of processed holes
is one of the advantages of diamond-coated twist drills.
Variations in diameter and surface roughness Rmax of
drilled holes are shown in Figs. 2 and 3 respectively.
The diameter of the drill used was 3.0 mm and the
processed work material was A390. The vertical scale of
Fig. 2 shows the difference between the diameters of

,,

e::t

Work P'_

: A390

Revolution
Feed rate

: 4250 rpm
: 0.1 mmlrev

e"

Hole depth

Cemenled carbide

Coolant

: 10 mm
: ""Iter-soluble emulSion

Diamond coating

4000

2000
3000
Number of processed holes

2000

3000

4000

5000

twist drills and processed holes. The diameter of the

holes processed with the uncoated cemented carbide
twist drill changed about 15 Ilm during its short life of
525 holes, whereas the diameter change of the diamond
coated twist drill was only 3 Ilm over 5000 holes. The
surface roughness of holes processed with the diamond
coated twist drill was better than that with the uncoated
tool. It is believed that these characteristics come from
the high wear resistance and low adhesion properties of
diamond. Photographs of the principal cutting edge of
the diamond-coated and the uncoated twist drills after
the cutting test are shown in Fig. 4. The principal cutting
edge of the diamond-coated twist drills after processing
2100 holes had not changed, whereas that of the
uncoated drill was worn away and some of the work
material was adhered on the surface.
The cutting force of the diamond-coated twist drill
was expected to increase, because the cutting edge
became rounder with the added film thickness. To prove
this, torque and thrust force were measured during
processing of the A390 material by changing the feed
rate from 0.1 to 0.25 mm rev. -1. Other cutting parame
ters were as follows: revolution, 6360 rev min -1; depth
of hole, 20 mm; coolant, water-soluble emulsion. The
results are shown in Fig. 5.
In contrast to our expectation, the cutting force of the
diamond-coated twist drill was not higher than that of
the uncoated cemented carbide. This result may be

1000

Fig. 3. Variation in surface roughness of the processed holes.

Number of processed holes

,, Cemenled carbide

1000

,,

... '

10

Diamond coating

Drill di.meler: 3.0 mm

...1

15

Workpi_
: A390
Drill dllmeter : 3.0mm
Revolution
4250 rpm
Feed rale
01 mmJrev
Hole depth
: 10mm
Coolant
: water-soluble emulsion

10

5000

Fig. 2. Variation in the difference liD between the diameter of

processed holes and the tool diameter.

Table I
Comparison of the tool life between diamond-coated and uncoated cemented carbide twist drills
Diameter
(mm)

2.5
6.0
3.0
1.5

Workpiece
material

ADCI2
A390
GFRP
Semisintered WC-Co

Thickness
or depth
(mm)

5
20
3
2

Tool life

Cutting parameter

WC-Co
(holes)

Diamond coat
(holes)

Revolution
(rev min -1)

Feed rate
(mm rev-I)

2oo

25S000
S075

2oo

3oo

4oo

14000

1000

O.OS
0.20
0.0125
0.01

160
3000
100

2100

K. Kanda et al.fSurface and Coatings Technology 73 ( 1995) 115-/20

118

Fig. 4. Cutting edges of (a) the diamond-coated twist drill after 2100
holes and (b) the uncoated cemented carbide twist drill after 525 holes.

1.2
(a)

1.0

Z
c

Vi 0.6

, ,

..r::
f-o

2.3. Square end mills

_
Diamond coating
- - - Cemented carbide

0.8

.,.

,
.,. .,.

.,. .,.

.,.

.,. ,.,---

0.4
0.2

0
0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

Feed rate (mm/rev)

1.8

(b)

1.6

Diamond coating
- - - Cemented carbide

1.4

E
.,

"~

explained as follows. The higher cutting force of the

uncoated twist drill may come from adhesion of the
aluminium, whereas adhesion does not tend to OCcur
with the diamond-coated twist drill. Therefore, the
increase in cutting force due to the roundness of the
cutting edge may be negated by the decrease in material
adherence.
The drilling performance with glass fibre was eval
uated for GFRP processing, since the GFRP for electric
circuit boards requires high precision holes to secure
electrical conductivity through holes. Excellent fibre
cutting performance was obtained with the as-deposited
diamond-coated twist drill; however, the burr height
exceeded the limitation of 25 11m with an average value
of 55 flm. To overcome this problem, about 5 ~m of
diamond film on the cutting edges was ground off to
recover the sharpness of the cutting edge after 25 ~m of
diamond film had been deposited. Photographs of the
outer cutting blades before and after grinding process
are shown in Fig. 6. The average burr height of the
GFRP board processed by the resharpened drill
decreased to 20 flm. The tool life of the diamond-coated
twist drill listed in Table 1 for GFRP processing was
obtained with this type of resharpened twist drill.

---

1.2

The square end mill is one of the most difficult cutting

tools on which to deposit the diamond film, since its
shape is very complicated and the cutting blades on
which a uniform diamond film should be deposited are
long. However, we could overcome this difficulty by
utilizing the hot filament CVD method and the rotating
square end mill placed between the suitably arranged
hot filaments.
The peripheral milling test was carried out for the
A390 material to evaluate the cutting performance of a
square end mill. The diameter of the end mill was 8 mm
and cutting parameters were as follows: revolution,
8000 rev min - 1; feed rate, 2.0 m min - 1; axial depth of
cut, 14 mm; radial depth of cut, 0.2 mm; dry cutting. The
cutting test, which was performed over 400 m of total
cutting length, concluded without any trouble and flank
wear of the outer cutting edge was 16 flm, whereas the

1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

Feed rate (mm/rev)

Fig. 5. Cutting force of the diamond-coated and the uncoated
cemented carbide twist drills: (a) thrust; (b) torque.

Fig. 6. Photographs of the outer cutting edge: (a) before and (b) after
grinding the diamond films.

K Kanda et al.jSurface and Coatings Technology 73 (1995) 115-120

60

Workpiece
Diameter

50

Feed rate
Axial d.o.c.

:l

...[ij
Ii:

Revolution

8mm
8000 rpm
2m1mon

Radil.l d.D.C. :

14mm
O.2mm
dry

Coolant

::I.

A390

40
30
20
10
0

r"'
carbide

Diamond coaling

200

100

300

400

Cutting distance (m)

Fig. 7. Comparison of the wear characteristics of the diamond-coated

and the uncoated square end mills.

flank wear of the uncoated cemented carbide became

30 11m after 0.3 m of cut. In Fig. 7, the wear characteris
tics ofthe diamond-coated square end mill are compared
with those of the uncoated mill. The flank wear of the
cutting edge was measured at the centre of the cutting
depth. From this figure, it is clear that the wear rate of
the diamond-coated square end mill is extremely low
compared with that of the uncoated cemented carbide.
Therefore, a tool life more than 10 times longer can be
expected for the diamond-coated square end mill com
pared with the uncoated mill for A390 processing.

2.4. Ball nose end mill

A peripheral milling test of the diamond-coated ball
nose end mill was also carried out on graphite, since
ball nose end mills are frequently used for processing of

graphite electrodes, which are used for electrodischarge

machining processing of dies. The nose radius of the
mill was 6.0 mm and the cutting parameters were as
follows: revolution, 6000 rev min -1; feed rate, 1.8 m
min -1; axial depth of cut, 3.5 mm; radial depth of cut,
0.5 mm; dry cutting. The wear characteristics of the
diamond-coated ball nose end mill are compared with
those of the uncoated cemented carbide in Fig. 8.
Photographs of the cutting edges after the cutting test
are shown in Fig. 9. The flank wear of the uncoated ball
nose end mill became approximately 300 11m after a total
cutting length of 200 m, whereas that of the diamond
coated tool was lower than 150llm after 1500 m of
processing. From this result, it can be said that the
diamond-coated ball nose end mill has a tool life more
than 10 times longer than that of the uncoated tool for
graphite processing.

3. Problems with the utilization of diamond-coated

cutting tools

Diamond films are usually deposited more than 10 11m

thick to make tool life longer, since the tool life is
directly related to the film thickness. However, increased
film thickness causes many problems with cutting perfor
mance. One of the problems, as mentioned above, is the
increase in cutting force due to the increased roundness
of the cutting edge. The smaller diameter, approximately
under 1 mm, of diamond-coated twist drills will be more
likely to be broken under heavy cutting conditions such
as high speed and deep hole processing as a result of
this effect.

Workpiece
Nose radius

300

Revolution
Axial d.o.c.

Radial d.o.c.

:::t

..

'-'

200

Graphite (Hs 65)

6mm
1.8m/min
3.5mm
O.5mm

Cernenled carbide

-"l

l;j

ti:

119

100

OL----L._........._'----L._........._'----L._........._'----L._....L.._'----L._....L.._'--........
1500
500
1000
o
Cutting distance (rn)
Fig. 8. Wear characteristics of the diamond-coated and the uncoated ball nose end mills.

K Kanda et al./Surface and Coatings Technology 73 (1995) 115-120

120

Fig. 9. Cutting edge of ball nose end mills after milling test of graphite:
(a) rake face and (b) flank face of the diamond-coated ball nose end
mill; (c) rake face and (d) flank face of the uncoated ball nose end mill.

The second problem comes from the roughness of the

diamond-coated surface. Usually the surface of the dia
mond film becomes rough unless any deposition tech
niques are used to make the diamond grains fine. Because
of this roughness, the surface roughness of the processed
workpiece increases. The chip removal ability also
decreases because of this roughness and leads to an
increase in torque of the twist drills. To avoid these
problems, the diamond deposition process should be
developed to make fine-grained diamond films, or
otherwise some surface grinding technique should be
developed.
The third problem is the decreased strength of the
diamond-coated substrates. As shown in Fig. 10, the
transverse rupture strength of the diamond-coated
cemented carbide decreases with the increased film
thickness. These data were obtained by the three-point
2.4
~
Po.

8-

2.2 f-

..c:

0:0

~"

2.0

""2

"

"'"
~

f-O~O

o~o

1.8 f1.6 f-

~O

a>

1.4 f1.2

10

20
Film thickness (tL m)

30

40

Fig. 10. Relationship between the transverse rupture strength and

thickness of the diamond film.

bending test with diamond-coated specimens of size

4 mm x 8 mm x 30 mm. The decrease in transverse rup
ture strength with film thickness was well explained by
assuming a stress concentration at the tip of a crack
with depth equal to the film thickness. From this fact
we concluded that the initial crack is formed in th~
brittle diamond film as a result of tensile stress, and then
the crack propagates into the substrate when the stress
concentration at the crack tip exceeds the critical
strength of the substrate material. More details are
shown in our previous paper [7]. Because of this effect
diamond-coated inserts used under high speed and
intermittent cutting conditions suffer chipping easily.
These problems can be overcome by lowering the film
thickness and changing the shape of cutting tool.

4. Conclusions

The tool life of cemented carbide cutting tools was

greatly improved by applying a diamond coating for
processing non-ferrous materials. Because of the pro
longed tool life, high precision processing also became
feasible. Therefore, the demand for diamond-coated cut
ting tools is gradually increasing. Diamond-coated tools
are finding a niche as processing tools for aluminium
alloys, copper alloys, FRP, semisintered ceramics and
graphite. However, problems such as increased round
ness of the cutting edge due to film thickness, surface
roughness of the diamond film and decrease in the
transverse rupture strength of the diamond-coated sub
strates must be solved for widespread use of the dia
mond-coated cutting tools. Diamond coating techniques
for complicated shapes of cutting tools may also be
required, since such tools are often used in factories to
minimize the processing stage.

References
[1] S. Matsumoto, Y. Sato, M. Kamo and N. Setaka, lpn. J. Appl.
Phys., 21 (1982) Ll83.
[2] M. Kamo, Y. Sato, S. Matsumoto and N. Setaka, J. Cryst.
Growth, 62 (1983) 642.
[3] M. Murakawa, S. Takeuchi, H. Miyazawa and Y. Hirose, Surf
Coat. Technol., 36 (1988) 303.
[4] N. Kikuchi and H. Yoshimura, New Diamond, (1988) 42.
[5] J. Oakes, XX Pan, R. Haubner and B. Lux, Surf. Coat. Technol
47(1991)600.
.,
[ 6] K. Kanda, S. Takehana, S. Yoshida, F. Shimakura and K. Ishigane,
Proc. 2nd Int. Conf. on the Application of Diamond Films and
Related Materials, Ohmiya, MYU, Tokyo, 1993, p. 565.
[7] S. Takehana, S. Tsukao and K. Kanda, Proc. 2nd Int. Conf on
the Application of Diamond Films and Related Materials, Ohmiya,
MYU, Tokyo, 1993, p. 571.