CVD diamond deposition onto dental burs

A hot-filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) system has been modified to enable non-planar substrates, such as metallic wires and dental burs, to be uniformly coated with thin polycrystalline diamond films. Initially, diamond deposition was carried out on titanium and tantalum wires in order to test and optimize the system. High growth rates of the order of approx. 8 /hr were obtained when depositing diamond on titanium wires using the vertical filament arrangement. However, lower growth rates of the order of 4-5meu m/hr were obtained with diamond deposition on tantalum wires. To extend the work towards a practical biomedical application tungsten carbide dental burs were coated with diamond films. The as-grown films were found to be polycrystalline and uniform over the cutting tip. Finally, the costs relating to diamond CVD onto dental burs have been presented in this paper. The costs relating to coating different number of burs at a time and the effect of film thickness on costs have been included in this investigation. (author)