Investigation of the correlation of performance parameters with rock brittleness concepts on diamond wire cutting

Abstract

Effective usage of the diamond wire in a marble quarry is important to get high production rates and low production costs. In a quarry, cutting rate of the wire and wear of the diamond beads on wire are the performance parameters for the diamond wire cutting operation. In this study, the effects of the rock brittleness on the efficiency of diamond beads are examined by investigating cutting rate and unit wear values. Until now, the effect of the rock brittleness on diamond wire cutting has not been put forward by any researchers. Therefore, it is aimed to correlate the relationships between performance parameters and some brittleness concepts proposed by Hunca & Das (1974) (B1 and B2), Altindag (1974) (B3) and Yarali & Soyer (2011) (B4). These brittleness concepts were used to investigate the relationships between performance parameters in diamond wire cutting, which include bead wear and cutting rate, and rock brittleness. This study was performed on nine different rocks, composed of seven marble samples and two limestone samples. As a result of this study it is found out that unit wear values increase with increasing brittleness concepts B1, B2, B3 and B4. It is also found out that cutting rate values decrease with increasing brittleness concepts B1, B2, B3 and B4. © BeFo and ISRM, 2012.