Experimental research on the wear on diamond impregnated beads in hard rock cutting

In this study, the behaviour of diamond impregnated beads used in granite cutting is analysed. Matrix and diamond loss has been studied on beads at different stages of wear, as well as bead geometry changes. The evolution of the cutting path of the wire has been surveyed on rocks of well known small scale and large scale mechanical features. The analysis was used to set the rules by which a fixed geometry cutting tool, equivalent to the actual random geometry tool, and a standard form of the cutting path can be defined, to be employed in a modelisation of the cutting operation.