A new technical brief released by the China Superhard Materials Industry Association on September 10, 2026 systematically sorts out the definition, material properties and industrial application status of PCD tools, providing a clear reference for downstream precision manufacturing enterprises to select and apply superhard cutting tools.

PCD, the full English name of which is Polycrystalline Diamond, is a superhard material formed by sintering diamond micro-powders under extreme high temperature and high pressure conditions. A PCD tool is a high-performance cutting tool made by taking this polycrystalline diamond material as the core functional layer and compounding it on a cemented carbide substrate. Compared with traditional high-speed steel and coated carbide tools, it has extremely high hardness, low friction coefficient and excellent wear resistance, and has become one of the core supporting tools for current high-efficiency and high-precision machining.

According to the data from the association, the Vickers hardness of PCD materials can reach 7000 to 10000 HV, which is close to that of natural diamond. Its internal diamond grains are arranged in a disordered polycrystalline structure, avoiding the defect of easy cleavage along a single crystal plane of natural diamond tools. The PCD composite layer with a common thickness of 2 to 3 μm can be adjusted to more than 10 μm according to the processing requirements, which can meet the long-term stable cutting demands of different scenarios.

In terms of processing performance, the friction coefficient of PCD tools against aluminum alloys is as low as 0.1, which can effectively suppress the formation of built-up edges during high-speed cutting. When processing AA6061 aluminum alloy composite materials, it can achieve a stable surface roughness Ra of 0.11 to 0.4 μm, far exceeding the processing quality of TiAlN-coated tools and uncoated carbide tools. For high-silicon aluminum alloy with 17% silicon content, the service life of PCD tools is more than 20 times that of ordinary carbide tools, and it can maintain a stable cutting speed of 800 m/min.

At present, PCD tools have been widely used in many key manufacturing fields. In the automotive and new energy industries, they are used for precision machining of piston ring grooves, transmission synchronizer grooves and new energy vehicle battery aluminum shell clamping grooves; in the 3C electronics industry, special-shaped PCD milling cutters undertake the high-speed milling work of mobile phone middle frames and precision narrow grooves of connectors; in the aerospace field, PCD forming tools are used for efficient processing of large aluminum alloy structural parts and composite material skins.

Industry insiders said that with the continuous optimization of micro-texture tool design and cryogenic cooling supporting processes, the application boundary of PCD tools is further expanding. It is expected that by 2028, the penetration rate of PCD tools in China's precision machining field will increase from the current 18% to more than 30%, driving the overall efficiency of the manufacturing industry to continue to improve.