The methods of making diamond tools have undergone a remarkable development since the invention of synthetic diamond in the mid-1950s. The current review summarises key historical, recent and ongoing trends and developments in sintered diamond tools. The report concentrates on tools used within the stone and construction industries which, being the main consumers of metal-bonded diamond tools fabricated by powder metallurgy (P/M) technology, have always fuelled advances in tool design and production technologies.

This article discusses results of an analysis of mechanical properties of a sintered material obtained from a mixture of elemental iron, copper and nickel powders ball milled for 60 hours. The powder consolidation was performed by hot pressing in a graphite mould. The hot pressing was carried out for 3 minutes at 900 °C and under a pressure of 35 MPa. The sintered specimens were tested for density, porosity, hardness and tensile strength. Their microstructures and fracture surfaces were also examined using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The study was conducted in order to determine the suitability of the sintered material for the manufacture of metal-bonded diamond tools. It was important to assess the effects of chemical composition and microstructure of the sintered material on its mechanical properties, which were compared with those of conventional metal bond material produced from a hot-pressed SMS grade cobalt powder. Although the studied material shows slightly lower strength and ductility as compared with cobalt, its hardness and offset yield strength are sufficiently high to meet the criteria for less demanding applications.