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 paper deals with numerical and analytical modelling of a diamond or silicon particle embedded in a metallic matrix. The numerical model of an elastic particle in a metallic matrix was created using the Abaqus software. Truncated octahedron-shaped and spherical-shaped diamond particles were considered. The numerical analysis involved determining the effect of temperature on the elastic and plastic parameters of the matrix material. The analytical model was developed for a spherical particle in a metallic matrix. The comparison of the numerical results with the analytical data indicates that the mechanical parameters responsible for the retention of diamond particles in a metal matrix are: the elastic energy of the particle, the elastic energy of the matrix and the radius of the plastic zone around the particle. An Al-based alloy containing 5% of Si and 2% of Cu was selected to study the mechanical behaviour of silicon precipitates embedded in the aluminium matrix. The model proposed to describe an elastic particle in a metallic matrix can be used to analyze other materials with inclusions or precipitates.