Diamond Blades

       

This article will share a good piece of information to start because if you buy a diamond saw blade to perform cutting, grinding or polishing jobs, you must not throw your money out of the window. Why it is so important to get the basic knowledge of the diamond blades? Well, it's actually pretty straight forward. By gaining an insight into the Diamond blades you can make the best selection of the diamond blades suiting your requirement and budget.

Diamonds are the hardest known natural materials on earth. They are placed into two categories, "Gem Grade Diamonds" and "Industrial Grade Diamonds". The diamonds used in industrial tools are the industrial grade diamonds. Industrial diamonds are valued for their hardness and heat conductivity. 80% of mined diamonds are unsuitable for use as gemstones and are known as "boit", these diamonds are destined for industrial use. Synthetic diamonds have been used since their invention in the 1950's. Industrial grade diamonds are used in cutting, drilling, grinding, and polishing. Most commonly, the diamonds used in these technologies are not required to be large.

How Diamond Blades Work?

Diamond Blades provide cutting through mutual erosion of the material (concrete, etc.) and the segment, or rim, of the diamond blade. Diamond crystals are embedded throughout a blades rim, suspended in a metal matrix. As the crystals either get crushed or fall out of the rim, the matrix wears down at an optimal rate to expose new diamonds to continue efficient cutting. If the matrix fails to wear down fast enough, the rim will glaze over and cutting will become much more difficult and slow. If the matrix wears down too quickly, crystals will be lost before their usefulness has expired. The blade may appear to cut very fast, but the life of the blade will be greatly shortened.

Basics of Diamond Saw Blades

A "Diamond Bearing Edge" is a continuous or segmented rim of a blade. The "Core" of a blade is the steel disc the segments are attached to. The "Slots" or "Gullets" are the spaces between the segments that cause a water flow to cool the blade. The diamond segments, or "Rims", are made up of a diamond and metal powder mix. Diamonds come in various grit sizes and quality grades. In the segments, a metal powder + diamond grit mixture is pressed to form a solid metal. Soft blades cut hard materials, and hard blades cut soft materials. As a general rule, you need a blade with a softer matrix to cut hard, less abrasive materials such as cured concrete, brick, tile or stone. Conversely, you need a blade with a harder matrix to resist the excessive abrasion of softer materials such as green concrete, asphalt or block.

Inverse Relationship between Blade Life and Cutting Speed

There is an inverse relationship between cutting speed and blade life. If a saw operator makes a change, such as increasing cutting pressure to make a blade cut faster, blade life will tend to be shortened as a result. Likewise, if an operator wants to extend the blade's life, he can reduce cutting pressure and cut slower. Each job is different, and the labor cost also needs to be added to the equation to arrive at the cost-efficient solution.