What is Polycrystalline Diamond (PCD) Tooling?

PCD (Polycrystalline Diamond) has been used in the wood/composites industry for over 40 years due to its abrasion resistant properties and hardness.  This synthetic cutting edge material was pioneered by the DeBeers company (famed for their natural diamond mining history) and General Electric’s Specialty Materials Division.   Polycrystalline Diamond (PCD for short) is composed of diamond particles that are sintered with a metallic binder at extreme high temperatures and pressures,  creating the hardest, and one of the most abrasion resistant materials used in cutting tools today.  The manufacturers of synthetic diamond (a handful or them worldwide),  sell their laboratory grown diamond products to many diverse industries, the cutting tool industry being only one of them, for use in the production of cutting tools.  Tooling that utilizes this synthetic diamond material is now used in a wide range of machining applications including sawing, routing, drilling and profiling, to maximize tool life and reduce overall production cost.    Ideal material applications include cutting chipboard, MDF, particle board, HDF,  and many composite materials including solid surface, cement fibre board, fiberglass and phenolic.