The Mechanical Properties of Diamond
Post Date: 17 Oct 2009 Viewed: 522
Diamond is the hardest material on the earth. It has high thermal conductivity, high insulation and high chemical stability. It can be used to process non-ferrous metals such as aluminum and copper both efficiently and precisely, and is especially suitable to process hard and brittle non-metallic materials.
1) High hardness, high wear resistance: Diamond has the highest hardness value. Its abrasive hardness is 150 times of corundum, 1000 times of quartz and 6 times of carbide alloy.
2) Low friction coefficient: The friction coefficient between diamond and metal in the air is 0.1. Therefore, diamond has a very high frictional resistance. Its friction resistance is 90 times of corundum, 100 times of carbide alloy and 9000 times of steel.
3) High strength: Diamond’s crystal structure, its Impurity’s composition and content determine the strength of a diamond. Natural diamond’s compressive strength is about 8000 kg/cm², which is about 3.5 times of corundum, 1.5 times of carbide alloy and 9 times of steel.
4) Though diamond has high hardness and high strength, it also has brittleness. When a diamond receives a certain degree of impact force, it may generate cracks or even be broken into regular-shape small pieces. This is the biggest weakness of diamond.
5) High thermal conductivity, bad thermal stability: The change of temperature has a fairly big influence on the strength of diamond. With the rise of temperature, diamond’s strength declines.