Chemical vapour deposition (CVD) diamond coated tools performance in machining of PEEK composites

This paper presents a study about the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) diamond coated tool performance in machining unreinforced PEEK and composite PEEK CF30 (reinforced with 30% of carbon fibres). The experimental procedure consisted of turning operations, during which cutting forces and surface roughness obtained in composite workpieces were measured. The obtained results showed a best cutting performance for CVD diamond coated tool in machining PEEK composites, particularly in terms of cutting forces and power consumption, when compared with polycrystalline diamond (PCD) and cemented carbide (K10) cutting tools. This fact is very important due to the minor production costs of CVD diamond coated tools in comparison with PCD tools. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.