How Metal Bond Diamond Tooling Actually Works

2019-08-19

WHAT IS ?

Metal-bond diamond tools are available in a range of grits from 6# to 200# with the lower numbers being a more aggressive tool. Diamonds are set in a matrix that interacts with the concrete dust produced in the grinding process and wears down the matrix exposing more and more diamonds as you grind, to continue cutting the floor.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

Diamonds are an important part of installing concrete floors - they're used for rough grinding, shaping, honing and also polishing. Selecting the right diamond tooling is the key to getting a good finish for your concrete floors. When grinding hard concrete you won’t have the same amount of dust, and the dust can be very fine compared to soft concrete; which results in a lot of dust or larger grindings. – Since we know it's the dust that interacts with the matrix on your diamond tooling in order to expose the diamonds, the hardness of the concrete is an important factor to consider when selecting tooling.

If you choose the incorrect diamond tooling, nothing will happen when you run your machine. The diamonds don’t cut, often due to heating up and glazing over. This happens mostly on hard concrete.

The other thing that will happen is the diamonds cut like crazy but you can wear them out very quickly. This will increase your cost.

SO WHAT DO YOU DO?

You must find out the balance of diamond use and productivity. That means you need to know the hardness of the concrete and understand how each bond hardness works. There are 3 most commonly used matrix bonds: Hard Bond, Medium Bond and Soft bond. You must pair the appropriate diamond bond with the hardness of concrete you’re working with.

The “Rule of Thumb” is: soft concrete requires hard bond diamonds and hard concrete needs soft bond diamonds.

Once you understand the concrete hardness, you can easily use the rule of thumb, to find the balance of diamond use and productivity. This will save your money and help you to produce optimum results efficiently.

Share to facebook