The influence of diamond content on the formability and mechanical properties of additively manufactured metal-bonded diamond tools

The traditional fabrication methods cannot design and fabricate the metal-bonded diamond tools with complex shape and porous structure, which hinders the heat conductivity and shape freedom. Additive manufacturing is considered as an emerging and potential process to form the metal-bonded diamond tools. In this paper, the influence of diamond content on the formability and mechanical properties of metal-bonded diamond tools fabricated by laser additive manufacturing process is investigated. Firstly, the manufacturing parameters of additively manufactured metal-bonded diamond tools with different diamond contents have been optimized based on the multiple parameters sintering experiment. Secondly, the influence of diamond content on the morphological and mechanical properties of metal-bonded diamond tools has been analyzed. Result indicates that the diamond abrasives are uniformly distributed and firmly embedded into the metal binder with chemical metallographic bonding, and the addition of diamond abrasives has changed the deformation behavior of the additively manufactured diamond tools. In detail, the increment of diamond content brings about the brittleness enhancement, ductility reduction, strength decline, and stiffness growth.