Effects of diamond and bond type

For machining of very hard materials (tough ceramics, ruby, sapphire and certain types of glass-ceramics), the natural diamond and the high strength synthetic diamond give better performance than the weaker synthetic diamond (Markov and Ustinov, 1972). With natural diamond the MRR is lower but the tool wear is less and Ra is smaller than with the high strength synthetic diamond. As the bond strength is increased, MRR is reduced and tool wear is also reduced. Also, stronger diamond requires stronger binders.