Diamond tools for wire sawing metal components

Abstract

In the last few years, a wire sawing process has been developed for many applications in the field of natural stone and construction materials, especially for very thick materials or components that are difficult to access. Diamond wire cutting was limited to small carbon-steel shapes, such as pipelines for transporting gas or oil under the sea. In particular, the task of cutting pure steel components offers new fields of applications, e.g. treatment of nuclear power or off-shore-components. The application of the wire sawing process for these specific cutting operations requires the development of diamond tools adapted to the cutting process. In this paper, the basic principles of wire sawing are explained and the background of diamond wire cutting of steel components is discussed. The interaction between the tool and the workpiece is described in detail. Results are presented of a project on further developments of the diamond wire sawing technique, emphasising the applications for metal components.