An experimental study was carried out to quantitati ve ly evaluate the loads acting on the diamond grits during circular sawing of two kinds of typical granite with diamond segmented saw blade. Measurements were mad e of the horizontal and vertical force components and the consumed power in order to obtain the tangential and the normal force components. The temperatures at the diamond-granite contact zone were measured using a foil thermocouple. T he measurement, together with the net sawing power, was subsequently used to est imate the energy partition to the granite by a temperature matching technique. B ased on the energy partition values, the temperatures at individual cutting poin ts were estimated using an analytical model. SEM was used to follow the topograp hies of worn diamond segments. The average force acting on each diamond grit was found to be only 4% of the diamond compressive strength measured by a static me thod. The strength disparity of diamond grits and the random protrusion of grits beyond bond matrix should be significant factors in accounting for the wear of diamond grits. The wear of diamond grits was also found to be closely related to the high temperatures generated at individual cutting points and the pop-outs of diamonds from the bond matrix might be mainly attributed to the heat conducte d to the segments.
XU Xi-peng, LI Yuan, ZENG Wei-ming, LI Liang-bin (Province Key Lab of Stone Machining, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou 362 011, China)
