Review of diamond-cutting ferrous metals

Machining of ferrous metals using diamond tools is one of the most important areas in ultra-precision machining as it is not possible to achieve a nanometric surface if one simply uses diamond tools to do the cutting. A review on the wear mechanism and existing approaches for the tool wear reduction discussed in literatures is conducted. By comparing the existing solutions in terms of tool wear and surface finish, publications have shown that ultrasonic vibration cutting and workpiece surface modification have better effects in improving tool life in diamond cutting of ferrous metals. However, the combination of the two solutions does not show a further improvement of either the surface finish or the tool wear reduction compared with that of ultrasonic vibration cutting alone. Studies show that substitutions of tools made of diamond with nano-grained CBN and development of novel suitable-for-diamond-cutting materials are potentials in prolonging the tool life.