About Crystallume

Solving Customer Problems with
CVD Diamond Technology

Diamond Helps Improve Product Performance

Founded in 1984, Crystallume pioneered the development and application of Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) diamond technology. Since then, Crystallume's coating experts have become specialists at solving customer problems with diamond technology.

Diamond technology isn't new. In the late 1950s, Russian scientists first suggested the idea that diamond could be synthesized by CVD techniques under low pressure. Product designers were interested but, initially, it was viewed as an exotic and expensive solution. Today, with advancements in technology, customers consider CVD diamond to be a viable and important solution for many cutting tool and hard coating applications. In defense, manufacturing, medicine, computing, and many other areas - from components to systems - diamond helps improve product performance.

CVD diamond has all the extreme chemical and physical properties of natural diamond and high-pressure, high temperature (HPHT) synthetic diamond. CVD diamond is essentially pure diamond formed as interconnected diamond microcrystallites with no binder - grown directly on the tool substrate.

With the intense interest of product designers, diamond may become as common as aluminum is today. Its popularity has grown because diamond properties are found at the extreme poles on material scales and therefore offer many benefits.

Benefits of Diamond

  • Highest degree of hardness of any material - the lowest coefficient of friction
  • Highest thermal conductivity - the lowest chemical reactivity
  • Highest tensile and compressive strength - broadest range of optical transmissivity

As a manufacturer, you place high demands on the performance of materials. Diamond is the perfect solution and Crystallume's specialty. Contact one of our engineers. We'll suggest how to implement diamond into your manufacturing process and improve your product performance today!

Pure Diamond – Grown from Methane Gas

The DCC® (Diamond Coated Carbide) technology developed by Crystallume in 1992 produces continuous diamond coating with all the extreme chemical and physical properties of natural and high-pressure high temperature (HPHT) synthetic diamond. It is essentially pure diamond that is grown from methane gas. This diamond coating of intergrown diamond microcrystallites with no binder is deposited by proprietary chemical vapor depository technology. It is superior to other alternative coatings like DLC, PCD and Plated Diamond.

 Comparison of Crystallume CVD Diamond with Current Alternative Materials

Property

Crystallume CVD Diamond

Alternative

Thermal Conductivity (w/cm-°C)@25°C

10-18

Copper 4.0

Hardness (kg/mm2)

9000

CBN 4500

Optical Transmissivity

225 nm to far IR

Sapphire

Band Gap (eV)

5.4

GaAs 1.43

Coefficient of Friction

0.05-0.7

Teflon®0.05

Thermal Expansion (ppm)

2.0

Si 2.6

Electrical Resistivity (ohm-cm)

1015 (<10-3doped)

AI203 1015

Smooth Diamond –
What is It? Where
is It Used?

Crystallume has been coating tools with smooth diamond since the beginning of 2003. Field tests have shown that the smooth diamond has performed most successfully in the turning and boring of low silicon aluminum alloys.

The new smooth coating is about half the thickness of our standard coating which helps to give the tool a sharper edge. The grain size of the new coating is less than 1 micron, compared to our standard coating with an average grain size of 10-12 microns. This gives the new smooth coating an improved surface for resisting BUE (Built Up Edge) a key in machining low silicon aluminums.

The smooth diamond tools work best where finish and edge sharpness is an issue. The tool life will still be equivalent to PCD tools in the same application.

Smooth diamond tools are available on a limited basis from stock or can be special ordered. Please remember to specify Smooth Diamond for those applications where surface finish is an issue.

2000X smooth diamond cutting edge

2000X faceted diamond cutting edge

3000X smooth diamond

3000X faceted diamond

1000X continuous uniform coatings over the entire surface

4000X faceted edge lowers cutting forces

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