Polycrystalline diamond compacts are widely used in various industries due to their excellent hardness, wear resistance, and thermal conductivity, mainly in situations where efficient cutting, grinding, or polishing is required. Scanning acoustic microscope is an efficient machine for testing polycrystalline diamond compact.

Here are some common uses for diamond compacts:

• Automobile industry: polycrystalline diamond compact are widely used in precision cutting and grinding of automobile engine parts.

• Electronics industry : polycrystalline diamond compact are used for cutting and grinding semiconductor materials such as silicon wafers and gallium arsenide.

• Aerospace: They can maintain low wear rates at high speeds and high temperatures, meeting the precision and durability requirements of aviation parts.

• Metallurgy and Mining : polycrystalline diamond compactare used in the manufacture of drilling tools in mining. The ultra-high hardness of diamond enables it to effectively cut extremely hard materials such as rocks and ores.

  

Most companies rely on manual sampling and destructive testing to analyze the defects of polycrystalline diamond compact. This detection method is inefficient, subjective and costly. With the advancement of science and technology, companies have higher quality requirements and destructive testing is gradually being eliminated.

Nowadays, many diamond manufacturers use non-destructive testing technologies such as optical and scanning acoustic microscopes, which use ultrasound to obtain two-dimensional images of the welding interface, providing an efficient and non-destructive detection method.

Since high-frequency ultrasound has strong penetrating and reflective properties, especially extremely sensitive to tiny cracks and gaps, it can accurately sense the internal and surface defects of polycrystalline diamond compact. The resolution is at the micron level, and there is no damage to the sample being tested, which can effectively avoid unnecessary waste caused by manual testing.

The general principle is as follows:

When ultrasonic waves encounter media of different materials, different reflected waves are formed. Scanning acoustic microscopes can collect different reflected waves very well and then convert them into digital signals for precise imaging on the computer screen, thereby achieving the effect of accurately observing the internal defects of the material for analysis. The higher the ultrasonic frequency, the greater the technical difficulty.

Currently, the brands that can develop high-frequency (above 50MH) ultrasonic microscopes include China’s Hiwave, Germany ‘s pva, and the United States’ sonoscan .

Diamond composite sheet thickness map under ultrasonic C-scan imaging: It can easily and accurately detect the thickness of diamond at various locations, helping diamond manufacturers to better analyze the quality of the same batch of polycrystalline diamond compact.

Diamond composite sheet strength diagram under ultrasonic C-scan imaging: The internal defects of the diamond composite sheet can be well observed based on the intensity of ultrasonic reflection.

Defect detection of diamond is particularly important, as cracks and cavities inside can lead to serious consequences. The detection method of scanning acoustic microscope has a solid theoretical basis and has been fully verified in production practice. Hiwave has quite mature experience in non-destructive testing over the years, helping customers to continuously improve welding quality and obtain high-quality products by adjusting welding processes with the support of ultrasonic images.