When diamond wire sawing started to be used regularly in the construction industry in the late 1980s, the cutting parameters employed were similar to those used in the stone industry where it had first been introduced two decades earlier. Gradually, though, through the work of diamond toolmakers and concrete cutting contractors, parameters such as wire speed and cutting rates were amended to suit the particular materials - mainly concrete - that were encountered on the construction side. In the construction industry, sawing and drilling operations with diamond tooling have traditionally been carried out with the use of water as a coolant. In more recent years, however, there has been a move towards the use of dry cutting tools for situations where the presence of water was either not beneficial or in fact prohibited. Examples of this are in nuclear establishments during decommissioning works and situations such as sawing and drilling in elevated structures where prevention of the water slurry from infiltrating lower levels was an important factor in the job.
展开▼
