Case Studies

Ceramic Case Study #1

A major manufacturer of ceramic components for the semiconductor industry faced challenges making a gas diffusion furnace component with 24 slots cut at an angle through the full depth of the parts. Machining this part with uncoated 3/8” carbide end mills typically required 10 tools to complete one part.

While the entire milling operation - about 1-1/2 hours – ran on CNC equipment, the operator had to watch continuously for the onset of chipping as the tool wore out, since chipping or cracking would scrap the part. This was an expensive process if the part were scrapped – especially if the part was almost fully machined.

With DIAbide coated tools, one tool easily completed 5 parts for a gain of 50 times tool life. The extended tool life allows the parts to be machined unattended. In this particular application, the speeds were increased 10-20%, and the feeds were almost doubled. The coated tools provided increases in productivity in many aspects.

Ceramic Case Study #2

A manufacturer of precision ceramic parts for semiconductor, electronics, and medical device production utilizes DIAbide coated tools to reduce tool change downtime.

Carbide inserts were used for turning alumina billets, then uncoated carbide end mills and drills were employed for machining fine detail to tolerances within 0.005”. For a typical job using a 0.200” diameter end mill, two parts can be machined with carbide versus 800 parts with a DIAbide diamond tool. Savings in downtime for tool resharpening or replacement in this and other operations has allowed parts to be made that would have been unprofitable with carbide tools. In this application the DIAbide coated tools were run at speeds and feeds about 15% higher than carbide.