Sawing performance comparison of brazed and sintered diamond wires

Abstract

Great attention has been paid on fabricating diamond wire by using the brazing diamond because of its strong chemical bonding strength and controllability of grits distribution. Although several serving performances of brazed diamond wire have been reported, seldom do these studies refer to its process characteristics. Sawing performances of a brazed diamond wire are investigated and compared with those of a sintered diamond wire on a wire saw machine. The surface topographies of beads selected from the two wires are micro observed before sawing. The sawing tests are carried out in constant feed rate feeding(CFF) and constant normal force feeding(CNFF). In CFF test, sawing force, power, and the cut depths of positions on contact curve are measured. Then, coupled with the observations of beads topographies, sawing force and its ratio, relations of power against material removal rate, and contact curve linearity are compared and discussed. In CNFF test, the sawing rates of the two wires are investigated. The results indicate that the brazed wire performs with lower sawing force(less 16% of tangential force and 28% of normal force), more energy efficiency(nearly one-fifth of sawing power is saved), at a higher sawing rate (the rate is doubled) and with better contact curve linearity as compared with the sintered wire. This proposed research experimentally evaluates the sawing performances of brazed diamond wire from the aspect of process parameters, which can provide a basis for popularizing the brazed diamond wire.