Wear inspection of a single-crystal diamond tool used in electroless nickel turning

Single-point diamond turning is a useful optical fabrication method for simultaneously obtaining a smooth surface and generating an accurate shape. Generally, a single-crystal diamond tool has been used in the single-point diamond turning method and a degree of the wear on the diamond tool is unavoidable. Tool wear causes the degradation of the surface quality, surface roughness, and shape accuracy of the workpiece. Inspection of tool wear is important in improving the surface quality. A single-crystal diamond tool used in electroless nickel turning was inspected by a laser scanning microscope and a scanning probe microscope. Regular grooves were observed on the flank face of the diamond tool, and the pitch interval was the same as the feed rate. The worn distance was obtained by measuring the clearance angle and the groove length on the flank face of the worn diamond tool. The worn distance of the diamond tool was 1.7 μm after machining electroless nickel for a 3.18 km cutting distance. The worn distance could also be obtained using the worn width on the flank face and the nose radius and was 2.05 μm, which was very close to 1.7 μm. Two methods based on the wear measurement of the flank face will be new methods to measure the worn distance of the single-crystal diamond tool.