SBIR Phase I: High Speed Machining of Titanium using Ultrananocrystalline Diamond Coated Carbide Cutting Tools

This SBIR Phase I project is aimed at developing smooth diamond-coated cutting tools, using a novel deposition technology that provides an ultra-nanocrystalline diamond (UNCD) coating on various substrates. Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc. (ADT) has developed a new diamond coating technology that, unlike other diamond technologies, is extremely smooth and exhibits much lower friction as deposited, in addition to the hardness, wear resistance, and high thermal conductivity that makes diamond cutting tools superior to others. This project will focus on the application of this coating for the machining of titanium alloys. The outstanding strength-to-weight ratio of titanium and its alloys makes them ideal materials for many aerospace applications. However, titanium alloys are notoriously hard to machine, and aerospace companies are desperate for more reliable, longer lasting cutting tools. Diamond in principle is the ultimate material for this application, but current technologies produce tools that are too rough and lead to high cutting temperatures that are prohibitive for machining titanium which is very reactive with carbon. The result will be cutting tools that are less expensive yet will enable the UNCD cutting tools will also address a world-wide unsatisfied need for more robust yet affordable cutting tools to machine a variety of other advanced materials, including aluminum-silicon alloys, superalloys, and carbon composites. UNCD coated tools will yield much longer tool life, higher cutting speeds, lower cutting temperatures, higher precision, and will greatly accelerate the adoption of the world's hardest material to the toughest machining applications and result in improved products while saving money.