Throughout the 1990s there has been considerable growth in the use of polycrystalline diamond (PCD) and polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN) cutting tools. The automotive, aerospace and woodworking industries in particular use these materials to benefit from the higher levels of productivity, precision and consistency in manufacturing that PCD and PCBN can deliver. To sustain this increase in demand and the greater levels of product awareness that now exist, ultrahard material manufacturers have had to respond by increasing the range of products available and at the same time improving product quality to the levels required by hi-tech manufacturing industry. This paper explores the current trends in the fabrication and application of PCD and PCBN tools and discusses the most recent and likely future developments to take place in raw material terms. These have included the introduction of new products with physical and compositional changes that have either enhanced the performance or improved the consistency of such products. Physical changes have included significantly increased raw material blank sizes, enabling advantages in yield and greater scope for the manufacture of tools, while thinner PCD layers now enable the more efficient manufacture of precision cutting tool edges. Compositional changes have resulted in the introduction of new PCD and PCBN products with specific properties tailored to provide greater benefit to manufacturing industry. All these developments have taken place simultaneously with the continued improvements in quality which are so essential at the raw material stage of any engineering process. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
