Engis is a Worldwide Leader in the Micronizing of Diamond Powders and is Unsurpassed in its Ability to Customize High-Quality Diamond and CBN Powders for any Application including:
We process our diamond powder to your exacting specifications selecting only the finest diamond feedstocks. This careful selection of feedstocks, coupled with our special grading process, ensures that you receive diamond powder that meets stringent quality and repeatability criteria. Each lot of diamond powder is individually checked for size, shape and cleanliness. This process ensures consistent quality and superior performance suited to your individual application.
Each micron diamond and CBN product is designed, manufactured & qualified to possess a specific set of chemical & physical properties which ensure its performance.
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Our objective is to ensure consistent performance in each application by supplying micron diamond and CBN products whose properties are precisely defined and controlled. We Specialize in Consistent...
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Engis Corporation maintains a highly technical staff of scientists, engineers and chemists to support its development of superabrasive powders. This team has a wide range of expertise in diamond synthesis, characterization of diamond properties, chemical formulations and process applications which enables us to address virtually all of the challenges you may face with your diamond product performance.
Our staff has at its disposal a custom built Diamond Characterization Laboratory that includes standard commercial equipment, along with Engis custom designed and patented equipment for the characterization and testing of superabrasive powders. Additionally, we have three applications labs (HDD, Advanced Materials & Industrial Lapping Process Development ) at our disposal for application testing.
No other company in the industry can match Engis’ ability to control PSD, particularly in the sub-micron range. Engis employs a variety of measurement techniques and analyzers for the determination of Particle Size Distribution of micron diamond and CBN powders. This guarantees the diamond powder you purchase from Engis is graded to internal specifications which equal or exceed ANSI and FEPA Standards and are controlled under our ISO 9001 Quality Management System.
The Particle Size Distribution of a powder is determined by analyzing a large number of the particles and developing a PSD for the sample. The PSD is then used to verify conformance to the required size specification. Four characteristics of the PSD must meet specification for the powder to be accepted; typically those characteristics are 5% (minimum), Mean/Median, 95% (maximum) and 99.9% (largest particle).
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Technique and Equipment
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We have extensive experience along with the proper equipment and processes to ensure that the powders that we supply are 100% contaminant free. If you are manufacturing bonded superabrasive tools or grinding wheels, the surface cleanliness of the diamond and CBN particles is a key factor in achieving a strong bond regardless if you are utilizing a mechanical or electrochemical process.
If your manufacturing procedure calls for utilizing diamond slurries or compounds, the surface cleanliness of diamond particles themselves is critical to achieving good particle dispersion. And, if you are manufacturing PCD or PCBN blanks, the cleanliness of the surface of diamond and CBN particles is of paramount importance towards achieving good high pressure-high temperature sintering.
The manufacturing of micron superabrasive powders involves chemical processes that are meant to remove all inorganic contaminants (metallic and ceramic residues) from the end product. During these processes, the micron powder is exposed to reaction with inorganic acids and salts. It is during the classification or grading stage, that the micronizer may “contaminate” the powder through the introduction of certain chemical substances (surfactants and dispersants) which facilitate particle dispersion and thus, classification. These chemical substances that are absorbed to the particle surface, if not properly removed afterwards, account for surface contamination.
The task of achieving high surface purity is a very difficult one, particularly in the sub-micron size range, knowing the finer the size of the powder, the higher the surface area.
Technique and Equipment
We utilize Ion Chromatography (IC) to conduct quantitative analysis of the presence and concentration of ionic contaminants (anions and cations) extracted from the surface of the diamond particles.
At Engis we use inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) for quantitative chemical analysis, which can successfully measure the level of extrinsic and intrinsic impurities. Metallic and ceramic residues usually accompany the diamond/CBN feedstock materials. During size reduction or the milling stage of the micronizing process, intrinsic impurities (metallic and graphitic) trapped within the crystals, are released and introduced as extrinsic impurities to the resulting micron powder. Metallic impurities are also introduced as a result of mechanical wearing of the milling equipment.
Silicon oxide (SiO2), silicon carbide (SiC) and aluminium oxide (Al2O3) are the most common ceramic contaminants, while iron, nickel and chromium account for the most common metallic contaminants. Ceramic and metallic impurities are removed from the micron powder during cleaning and purification stages. If present in feedstock material, ceramic residues are difficult to remove through regular cleaning processes; which is why micron powders available on the market are sometimes contaminated with materials such as Al2O3, SiO2 and SiC.
Extrinsic or Bulk Impurities
The presence of extrinsic impurities (non-diamond or non-CBN materials) in superabrasive powders is known to alter its performance, therefore, superabrasive powders consisting of 100% diamond/CBN material are required, regardless of the application.
Intrinsic or Trapped Impurities
The catalytic high pressure-high temperature synthesis of diamond and CBN involves a solvent-catalyst that assists the phase transformation (graphite to diamond or hexagonal BN to cubic BN). Hence, all diamond and CBN materials synthesized by the HP-HT catalytic process contain impurities that are trapped in the diamond/CBN crystal during the crystal growth process. The most common impurities in diamond crystals are Fe, Co, Ni, and Mn, while most common impurities in CBN crystals are Li, Ca, Mn, Al, Si, and Fe.
To a large extent the intrinsic impurities, as internal crystal defects, are responsible for the mechanical, thermal and optical properties of the crystal. The level of intrinsic impurities has a significant impact on mechanical strength and thermal stability.
Irrespective of whether they are bonded into a wheel or tool, mixed into a slurry or compound, or even as a dry powder, only three dimensional abrasive particles will provide you with good cutting action.
Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) provides qualitative data about diamond type, size and surface |
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Optical microscope based image analysis equipment |
Both size and shape parameters measured
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At Engis we measure the Mechanical Strength of both diamond or CBN crystals, which is the ability resist fracturing under static or dynamic (impact) loading. This is the most important property of the crystal and mirrors all other properties (size, shape and level of crystal growth defects). Crystal’s strength is critical to you when choosing a product as certain applications, such as working with stones and construction materials, which will require a diamond that will stay strong, not fracturing and ultimately losing its sharpness.
Technique and Equipment
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We also analyze Micro-Fracturing Characteristics which is the ability of diamond/CBN particles to fracture under severe mechanical stresses and develop new fresh cutting edges and points (a so-called self-sharpening mechanism).
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Technique and Equipment We utilize the appropriate particle size analyzers and analysis techniques to analyze the “crushed” diamond/CBN powders in micron and submicron size range, from which the differences in the amount and size of “fine chips” generated during crushing can be revealed. The fine particle analysis shows that the RA and MA powders exhibit different micro-fracturing characteristics with RA diamond powder generating more fine particles less than 1 micron when compared to the MA4 diamond powders. |
Micron Particle Sizing & Sub-Micron Fine Particle Analysis
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