Wire Sawing

An experienced technician sets up the diamond wire saw by feeding the wire through a series of pulleys, once fed they would take up the tension in the wire to suit the operating requirements. Once positioned, the diamond wire is pulled and rotated around the object at 25 linear meters per second. This enables the diamond beads attached to the diamond wire to cut the material as it is pulled through. The wire is cooled and flushed by free flowing water at all times, this helps to ensure ease of cutting to minimize overheating whilst in operation.

As the wire is pulled through the object, any excess wire is stored on to a series of pulleys and stacked within the looping system.

The Diamond Wire sawing process provides a unique and cost effective solution of dealing with large and otherwise very difficult to manage concrete structures. This is a relatively recent development. Although there are some wire saws which were purpose made, the machines now generally in use in the building industry to-day can be quickly and easily converted from wall/track saws into wire saws.

The method of setting up is similar to that of the track saw but in lieu of the saw blade a grooved pulley wheel of 800mm diameter is fitted which takes the diamond wire. This wire is passed over any number of small idler pulleys to the surface being cut. The wire is a steel core of strands approx. 6m. diameter of almost any length. It has diamond beads along its length approximately 30mm apart and 10mm diameter. The beads are separated by either small springs, plastic or rubber, depending upon the type of wire and the manufacturer.

The wire is positioned over the pulleys and fed through pre-drilled holes in the concrete that is being cut and back over the drive pulley. The wire can be of almost any length and is joined by special crimps.

Sawing is carried out by turning on the power and maintaining a constant speed, whilst applying pressure on the wire by gently applying a steady backward movement along the track.