What is a diamond blade?
A diamond blade is a saw blade which has diamonds fixed on its edge for cutting hard or abrasive materials. There are many types of diamond blade, and they have many uses, including cutting stone, concrete, asphalt, bricks, coal balls, glass, and ceramics in the construction industry; cutting semiconductor materials in the IT industry; and cutting gemstones, including diamonds, in the gem industry.
Diamond blades are available in different shapes:
- Circulardiamond saw blades are the most widely used type of diamond blade.
- Adiamond gang saw blade is a long steel plate with diamond segments welded onto it. Normally, tens or hundreds of diamond gang saw blades are used together to saw raw stone blocks.
- Adiamond band saw blade is a flexible closed steel band with diamonds fixed (often by electroplating) on the teeth of one edge of the band.
Diamond blades designed for specific uses include marble, granite, concrete, asphalt, masonry, and gem-cutting blades. General purpose blades are also available.
A diamond blade grinds, rather than cuts, through material. Blades typically have rectangular teeth (segments) which contain diamond crystals embedded throughout the segment for grinding through very hard materials.
Cutting with or without water.
Many blades are designed to operate either wet or dry. However, diamond tools and blades work better when wet, and dry cutting should be limited to situations in which water cannot or should not be used. Water will prevent the blade from overheating, greatly reduce the amount of harmful dust created by cutting, remove the slurry from the cut, and extend the life of the blade, since diamond is unable to withstand the forces involved at the elevated temperatures involved in dry cutting ceramic and abrasive materials, and will be subject to rapid tool wear and possible failure.
When water cannot be used (in, for example, electrical saws), measures should be taken to ensure that the operator does not inhale the dust created by the process, which can cause silicosis, a serious lung disease. When dry cutting, the blade should be allowed to cool off periodically. Cooling can be increased by allowing the blade to spin freely out of the cut. The OSHA has strict regulations regarding silica dust and requires a N95 NIOSH-approved respirator in work sites where dangerous amounts of silica dust are present.
There are other factors that should be considered when choosing a diamond blade for a particular application. These include the type (manufacturing method) of the blade, the availability of water in the cutting process, the horsepower of the saw, and the acceptable level of noise created by the saw. For example, if the horsepower of a saw machine is large, the diamond concentration of the diamond blade should be higher, or the bond should be harder. Higher diamond concentration will decrease the impact on each single diamond in working, while a harder bond will hold the diamonds more firmly.
