Diamonds, Cutting Equipment, Parts and Repair

What is a Diamond Blade

Diamond Blade Performance

Diamond blades don't really "cut" like a knife… they grind. During the manufacturing "break-in" (grinding) process, individual diamond crystals are exposed on the outside edge and sides of the diamond segments or rim. These exposed surface diamonds do the grinding work. The metal "matrix" locks each diamond in place. Trailing behind each exposed diamond is a "bond tail" (also called "comet tail"), which helps support the diamond.

While the blade rotates on the arbor shaft of the saw, the operator pushes the blade into the material. The blade begins to cut through the material, while the material begins wearing away the blade.

Exposed, surface diamonds score the material, grinding it into a fine powder. Embedded diamonds remain beneath the surface. Exposed diamonds crack or fracture as they cut, breaking down into even smaller pieces. Hard, dense materials cause the diamonds to fracture even faster. The material also begins to wear away the metal matrix through abrasion. Highly abrasive materials will cause the matrix to wear faster.

This continuous grinding and wearing process continues until the blade is "worn out". Sometimes, small unusable parts of the segments or rim may remain. It is important to understand that the diamond blade and the material must work together (or interact) for the blade to cut effectively.

In order for a diamond blade to work properly, the diamond type, quality and grit size must be suited for the saw and the material. The metal matrix must also be "matched" to the material.

Blades for cutting hard, dense (less abrasive) materials (tile, hard brick, stone, hard-cured concrete) require a softer metal matrix. The softer metal matrix wears faster, replacing worn-out diamonds fast enough for the blade to keep cutting.

Blades for cutting soft, abrasive materials (block, green concrete, asphalt) must have a hard metal matrix to resist abrasion and "hold" the diamonds longer.