An experimental study on a novel diamond whisker wheel

This study proposes a novel diamond whisker wheel for grinding of advanced materials. The wheel is designed to have preferable spatial distributions and orientations of diamond whiskers which are prepared using a laser cutting technique. To obtain desirable cutting edge geometries, the whisker edges are formed on a lapping machine with diamond powders. The whisker wheel is used in a machining test on a silicon carbide particulate reinforced aluminum alloy and compared with a tungsten carbide milling cutter. The whisker wheel grinding provides better surface finish and significantly reduced machining force than for milling at the same material removal rate.