What Is MCD?

MCD is a very important synthetic diamond in the cutting tools industry. This blog will talk about MCD. What is it, really? And how can we apply MCD for producing great diamond cutting tools?

What is MCD?

MCD stands for Monocrystalline Diamond. The other name of MCD is SCD, which stands for Single Crystal Diamond. MCD is a single synthetic diamond that has a yellow-like crystal.

Properties of MCD

MCD has a hardness value of 9,000 kgf/mm2, and also has high abrasion and pressure resistance. MCD is also shockproof, and has more heat conduction than carbide. However, MCD is not suitable for metal cutting and CFRP because when cutting metal with cutting tools, this usually causes high heat, usually at 700-1,000°C. This causes MCD to melt and reduce its tool life. Compared to PCD, MCD cutting tools have approximately 3-10 times more tool life, but approximately 4 times more manufacturing cost for MCD tools.

What Are The Advantages Of Using MCD?

MCD is used for sharpening the cutting tools that can cut harder materials, which are really useful in a lot of aspects;

1. Increase Cutting Performance

With its higher hardness than any iron or tungsten carbide, MCD can be used for sharpening and creating high performance cutting tools, which is usually added at the cutting edge(s) of those tools.

2. Increase Tool Life Of Cutting Tools

With its hardness, toughness and high performance in cutting, MCD tools can be used longer than other typical cutting tools, or even carbide tools.

3. Reduce Manufacturing Cost (For Massive Production)

For massive production of machine parts in ten-thousand or hundred-thousand pieces, MCD tools can increase cutting efficiency and tool life. They can also reduce manufacturing cost per piece in the long run.

How Can We Use MCD In Cutting?

MCD is used for producing great cutting tools to various fields;

1. Turning

MCD diamond can be used for making MCD inserts and bites for turning. However, MCD doesn’t work well with iron when turning, so you need to check what materials of your workpiece are in order to choose the right material for inserts and bites. If you are working with iron turning, CBN is more suitable than MCD.

2. Polished Finish

MCD cutting tools are great at polished finishing work that need a high polished surface. With the hardness of MCD diamond, these cutting tools are great for high-detailed cutting. However, MCD tools are weak when cutting workpieces that contain iron that will make them less resistant to abrasion and lose quality overtime.

Conclusion

MCD diamond is a synthesis diamond that is very similar to a natural diamond, but comes with a disadvantage that it can’t be used in cutting workpieces that contain iron. However, with the right usage and application, MCD diamond can be really powerful for enhancing cutting tools for high cutting performance to cut faster and smoother. Also, this can reduce manufacturing cost for producing tools or machine parts from the MCD cutting tools.

Reference

http://www.chasediamond.com/tooling%20technology%20comparison.htm