Diamond blades are often preferred for making clean cuts on concrete surfaces over other types of blades--and with good reason. These blades come in a wide variety of options with different specifications and different price tags. Choosing the best blade for the job may therefore not be a walk in the park, especially for a first-time buyer. This article discusses two tips that can help you make the right decision in such a situation, so as to achieve optimum concrete sawing performance.
Consider The Kind Of Concrete Material To Be Cut
In the ideal situation, diamond sawing blades are closely matched with the type of concrete material to be cut. As such, anyone looking for a diamond blade needs to understand various properties of the concrete material. These include aggregate size, compressive strength of the concrete and type of sand to be used. A concrete material is considered soft if its compressive strength is less than 3000 per square inch, while hard concrete materials have a strength of more than 6000 per square inch, according to the Concrete Network.
The compressive strength of concrete also determines the type of bond that the diamond blade should have. Bonds in a diamond blade are responsible for keeping diamond crystals in place until they wear out when pressed against the concrete surface and new sharp diamonds are exposed. Diamond sawing blades with soft bonds are used to cut through hard concrete materials that are non-abrasive. Those with hard bonds are ideal for cutting low-strength concrete.
Bond requirements for diamond sawing blades are also determined by the type of sand used in concrete. The sand determines how abrasive the concrete will be, depending on its origin. Round river sand is the least abrasive with sharp sand being most abrasive. Diamond blades to be used with abrasive sand need to have harder bonds and vice versa.
Consider The Cutting Technique To Be Used
Dry and wet cutting are the two main techniques used to cut through concrete. Dry cutting is advantageous in the sense that it creates less of a mess and there is no need for saws to be equipped with hoses and tanks. Wet cutting may create a wet, slurry mess, but it reduces the amount of dust involved in the process.
For dry cutting, diamond blades with segmented welds would be ideal. The weld connects cutting parts of the blade to its core, which holds the diamonds. Welds help with heat resistance during the cutting process. These blades are preferred for use with hand-held saws of low horsepower designed for making irregular cuts. For wet concrete cutting, an ideal diamond sawing blade should be compatible for use with a walk-behind saw used to cut joints in cured concrete. The water cooling mechanism employed by this technique allows the blades to make significantly deeper cuts.
Share26 October 2015
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