Chapter 8 - Main application areas and operating guidelines for diamond-impregnated tools

Abstract

Diamond-impregnated tools are now accepted as the most effective means of sawing natural stone, concrete, reinforced concrete, asphalt, brickwork, glass, and other ceramic materials. The main classification of the operations carried out on these materials comprises circular-, flame- and wire sawing. A diamond circular saw blade is an efficient and versatile tool, which may be used on both portable and stationary machines. Frame saw systems have long been established as an efficient and low cost means for the mass production of stone slabs. They are generally used for cutting marble, travertine, limestone, sandstone, and agglomerates. Diamond-impregnated drills are efficient tools for cutting isolated holes in ornamental stone, concrete, asphalt, brickwork, glass and other non-metallic materials, stitch-drilling doorways and vents in heavily reinforced concrete structures, as well as for exploratory drilling in earth formations, which seems to belong to the oldest civil engineering applications of diamond. In stone working, the calibrating, grinding, and rough polishing steps are effectively realized with metal-bonded diamond tools installed on either single-head machines or multi-head automatic surface polishing lines.