Diamond Wire Saw for Special Shaped Stone

Diamond Wire Saw for Special Shaped Stone

Diamond wire saw for special-shaped stone processing is one of the most technologically advanced CNC stone processing equipment. Up to now, they have only been developed for more than 20 years, but have become the main equipment for processing special-shaped stone products with high added value.

Classification of Special Shaped Stone Wire Sawing Machines

According to the motion mode of the diamond wire saw, the special-shaped wire saw machine can be divided into horizontal motion mode, vertical motion mode and six-dimensional motion mode(in addition to the horizontal and vertical motion modes, the wire rope can also be in the inclined cutting motion state.)

According to the number of diamond wire saws installed, they are divided into single-rope and multi-rope diamond wire saws. Diamond multi-wire saws for special-shaped stones generally adopt a two-dimensional numerical control mode, which is mainly used for processing simple special-shaped stone products such as curved slabs. In addition, the vast majority of diamond wire saw for special-shaped adopt portal structure, and there are also six-dimensional CNC wire saws with single column structure. The saw machine with vertically moving diamond wire saws are divided into two types: large industrial products cutting machines and small desktop cutting machines. Small machines are specially used for processing mosaic stone products and curved edge plane products. The special mobile special-shaped saw machine can also be used in the demolition of old buildings and other construction industries.

The complexity of special-shaped diamond wire saw processing stone products is related to the number of controlled motion axes(or dimensions) of the saw. The more axes controlled by the CNC system, the more complex the shape of the products that can be processed. The relationship between the control axes of the CNC wire saw and the type and shape of the processed products are as follows:

  • Two-axis: it is used to process special-shaped stone products with uniform sections and rotary bodies with uniform sections, and is used for large stone lines, curved plates, three-dimensional characters, etc. on the outdoor windowsill.
  • Three-axis: it can produce all products processed by the two-dimensional sawing machine, including balusters composed of rectangles with unequal sections and rough-shaped spheres, which are easy and fast to change the position of products during processing.
  • Four-axis without rotary table: it can process all products (except spheres) processed by two and three-axis wire saw machines. Its characteristics are: since two pairs of guide wheels can independently or synchronously track and support the cutting force of the diamond wire saw, the control of the tension of the diamond wire saw is increased to improve the precision and production efficiency of the processed products.
  • Five-axis: the independent rotation tracking control function of the guide wheel is added on the basis of the three-dimensional sawing machine. In addition to processing all the products that can be processed by the two to four-axis sawing machine, it can also rough form the sphere, and process the three-dimensional products of the equal cross-section with high efficiency and precision.
  • Four-axis with rotary table: It can produce all the products processed by the above-mentioned two-axis to five-axis rope sawing machine, and non-rotary solid modeling with equal or unequal sections and shapes and different areas, such as plum cone cylinder, hollow plum cone torsional cylinder, cone torsional cylinder with equal or unequal diameters (equipped with lathe accessories), flat or curved surface space twisting solid modeling. As the guide wheel is fixed, the diamond wire saw has no support during cutting, and its tension should not be too large. The machining efficiency and surface machining accuracy of products are lower than those of the six-axis wire saw.
  • Six-axis: On the basis of the above four-axis machine, the six-axis wire saw has added the guide wheel tracking control function, which can increase the tension of the diamond wire saw, and improve the processing efficiency and the processing accuracy of the product surface. It can process all the products that can be processed by the above two to five-axis rope sawing machine, mainly used to process special-shaped stone products with complex spatial three-dimensional modeling.

CNC Diamond Wire Saw for Special Shaped Stone

CNC diamond wire saws are CNC processing equipment that uses flexible tools to process special-shaped stone products. They are suitable for processing special-shaped stone products with large volume and thickness, such as curved plates, stone conjoined shapes with large thickness, large solid Roman columns, solid or hollow columns, and are used for large stone line products at building eaves, lintels, windowsill lintels or windowsill surfaces.

According to the different shapes of processed stone products, CNC diamond wire saws can be divided into two categories: one is used to process special-shaped stone products with equal cross-sections, or special-shaped revolving body products with similar cross-section shapes but different areas and the other is used to process three-dimensional products with different cross-section shapes. Their control dimensions/axes are different, and the complexity of CNC diamond wire saws is also different.

In general, the two-axis CNC diamond wire saw refers to the use of a CNC system to control the synchronous lifting and lowering motion of the active flywheel and the driven flywheel driving the diamond wire saw motion and the forward and backward motion of the stone conveyer. On the basis of 2D, the 3D CNC bead saw adds control of the rotary motion of the stone conveyer. There are two control schemes for a four-axis CNC string saw. One scheme is to cancel the rotation of the skip and add the function of separately controlling the movement of the left and right guide wheels on the basis of the aforementioned three-axis saw. Another scheme is to decompose the control of the whole synchronous lifting motion of the beaded rope drive and the driven flywheel into the control of the independent lifting motion of the active flywheel and the driven flywheel on the basis of the aforementioned 3D saw control. The five-axis CNC diamond wire saw is a four-axis CNC diamond wire saw with the synchronous lifting of the master and slave flywheel and separate control of the left and right guide wheels. It adds the rotary motion control function of the stone conveyer. In addition to the lifting motion of the driving and driven flywheel, the rotary motion of the left and right guide wheels, and the front and rear motion control of the stone conveyer, the six-axis CNC bead saw also increases the control of the rotary motion of the workbench in 6 motion directions.

The working principle of the CNC diamond wire saw is that the CNC system controls the synchronous movement of the lifting and cutting of the diamond wire and the reciprocating of the stone conveyer to form a curved surface. If the synchronous control of worktable rotation and independent lifting of the driving and driven flywheel is added, a three-dimensional surface can be formed.

CNC diamond wire saws are equipped with a CAD-CAM system, which can input the graphics to be processed into a computer through programming, and then convert the CAM system into a processing program to control the processing of products. The screen can also display the graphic shape of the workpiece to be processed, the dynamic motion track of the diamond wire saw, as well as relevant coordinates, equipment motion status and other parameters. Many sawing machines are equipped with software that contains graphics and processing programs for products with a variety of common and regular shapes so that users can call them at any time.

CNC Diamond Wire Saw for Machining Stone with Equal Cross Section

The equal cross-section special-shaped stone means that no matter what the shape of the column section is (such as a circle, ellipse, sector or a plane with an arbitrary curve contour), as long as the column is cut by a plane perpendicular to the axis of the column, the column products with equal sections everywhere are equal to the uniform cross-section special-shaped stone products.

The CNC diamond wire saw for processing equal section special-shaped stone products must at least have a two-axis NC function, that is, the synchronous lifting movement of the driving wheel and the driven wheel driving the diamond wire saws movement, the forward and backward movement of the stone conveyer, and the synchronous control of the movement in these two directions. The guide supporting wheel of the diamond wire saw is fixed.

The basic structure of the equipment is: ①a pair of master and slave flywheels driving the rotary motion of the diamond wire saw, and the flywheels are respectively fixed on the sliding plates that can be lifted and lowered along the column. ②The upper and lower support beams, two columns and the foundation forms the support frame of the sawing machine. ③A set of hydraulic or pneumatic tensioning mechanisms to keep the diamond wire saw with a certain tension during sawing. ④Two fixed guide supporting wheels limit the radial movement of the bead rope. ⑤The stone conveyer that can move back on the guide rail and the CNC control system constitutes a two-axis constant cross-section CNC diamond bead saw. ⑥The rotation of the active flywheel is generally driven by the AC variable frequency motor, so that the motion speed of the diamond wire saw can be continuously adjusted between 0~40m/s, to meet the requirements of processing different materials such as marble, granite, limestone or the same type of stone with different degrees of hardness and softness. ⑦The lifting of the driving and driven flywheel and the reciprocating motion of the stone conveyer are driven by the AC servo motor through the ordinary trapezoidal screw rod with clearance adjusting nut, for some models of CNC diamond wire saws, these mechanisms are driven by a stepping motor through an ordinary screw rod.

The ideal model of the two-axis sawing machine, the driving and driven flywheel slide plates, the reciprocating motion parts of the stone conveyer and their respective guide rails are all equipped with circular ball-type plane bearings. The lifting drive of the slide plate is completed by the ball screw to reduce friction, achieve easy movement and accurate positioning, and reduce the power consumption of the servo motor or stepping motor.

The purpose of adding a rotary worktable on the stone conveyer is to make the processing of different sides of stones more convenient and fast. In addition, some rotary stone products can be processed on the multi-dimensional/multi-axis CNC diamond wire saw, such as rough forming spherical stone products.

Always keep the guide wheel able to withstand the normal force from the machining surface of the diamond wire saw. The guide wheel is driven by the AC servo motor or stepping motor, and its synchronous tracking characteristics are controlled by the CNC system. The distance between the guide wheels can be adjusted to fit the cutting of different widths of quarry stones/stone blocks. The maximum distance adjusted is the maximum width of the sawing machine that can process blanks, and the minimum distance is 30~40cm.

CNC Diamond Wire Saw for Machining Stone with Unequal Cross Section

Unequal cross section stone products generally refer to special-shaped stone products with complex spatial modeling, such as space-twisted products whose outer surface is curved after twisting the outer plane or curved surface, hollow or solid twisted columns, tapered columns, or revolving special-shaped stone products. That is to say, no matter what the shape of the column section is (such as a circle, an ellipse, a sector or a plane with an arbitrary curve profile), as long as the column is cut by a plane perpendicular to the axis of the column, the section shape of the column is similar or not similar, but the column products that are not equal everywhere are non-isometric special-shaped stone products.

In addition to the aforementioned control of the reciprocating motion of the stone conveyer and the tracking motion of the guide-bearing wheel, a rotary table must be added to the stone conveyer. Each flywheel can move up and down independently or simultaneously. The increased motion needs to be controlled by the CNC system, and its control dimension reaches four to six dimensions. The driving and transmission mechanisms of the moving parts are basically the same as the corresponding structures of the constant section CNC bead saw, and the graphics input mode is also CAD. The curved surface is formed by the CNC system to control the synchronous movement of the bead string in the up and down directions, the angle change with the horizontal line, the front and back directions of the block car and the rotation directions, and finally form the complex contour of the product.

CNC Diamond Wire Saw System for Machining Stone Cylinder

In addition to the multi-dimensional/multi-axes numerical control diamond wire saw, which can process the stone cylinder, Italy PELLEGRINI company also produced a diamond saw wire processing system especially for processing the stone cylinder. The system is composed of a fixed diamond wire saw for shaping and a special fixture. On the workbench of the stone conveyer, a special rotary fixture assembly similar to the lathe is installed. At both ends of the assembly, there is rotary clamping support for the support and rotation of the stone block. The forward and backward movement of the stone conveyer and the rotation of the slewing support adopt the numerical control drive mode, so the machine can be called a diamond wire saw controlled by a two-axis/dimensional numerical control system.

The maximum length of the machined stone cylinder is 3.4m, and the diameter is 0.35-1.15m. The block installed on the rotary fixture can rotate at a continuously adjustable rotational speed of 0.1-29 r/min to meet the processing speed requirements of stone cylinders of different materials and diameters.

The processing method is: first, install and fix the stone block/quarry stone on the rotary fixture, according to the product processing requirements, thread the diamond wire saw or place it at the appropriate cutting position, start the diamond wire saw movement, and after reaching the required cutting speed, adjust the cooling water to the appropriate cooling position, and finally start the rotary movement of the stone block to enter the formal cutting operation.

In addition to processing stone cylinders, the system can also process stone hollow cylinders, circular arc plates, and various overall revolving bodies or parts of revolving bodies with uniform cross sections and other special-shaped stone products.

Other Devices with Cutting Function Added

The machining function of diamond wire saws can be increased by installing some auxiliary devices and numerical control systems based on ordinary fixed-shaping diamond wire saws. For example, the shaping diamond wire saw is equipped with a set of control systems to control the forward and backward movement of the stone conveyer, as well as the lifting and descending of the diamond wire saw master and slave flywheel, which can automatically complete the processing operation of cutting the stone block into multiple slabs of equal or unequal thickness.

There is also a device to increase the processing function of the fixed diamond wire saw for special-shaped stone products, which includes two sets of devices similar to the supporting rope pulley of the CNC diamond wire saw. The rope pulley can be manually adjusted 360 degrees around the diamond wire saw. Rotation, a set of control systems to control the variable speed movement of the stone conveyer, special control card, encoder, control board for speed control and indication, etc. The result is that in addition to conventional vertical cutting, the diamond wire saw can also perform horizontal cutting and inclined to cut of stone blocks so that the common fixed shaping diamond wire saw can add the processing function of processing some irregular products of nonrectangular products. In order to offset the deficiency of the device in reducing the processing width of the shaping diamond wire saw by about 1.2m, the device is designed as a removable structure, which can be easily disassembled from the shaping machine, so as to restore the shaping processing function of the diamond wire saw.

Vertical Diamond Wire Saw

Vertical diamond wire saws are divided into mainframe and desktop structures. The desktop structure saw machine is a small vertical diamond wire saw, which is mainly used to process small special-shaped stone products such as stone mosaic products. The vertical diamond wire saw with a mainframe structure is used to process tombstone stones and thick special-shaped curved edge stone products.

Vertical Diamond Wire Saw with Desktop Structure

The processing principle of the vertical diamond wire saw with desktop structure is to manually control the cutting shape according to the graphic imprint of the products on the stone slabs. Some vertical diamond wire saws are also equipped with numerical control systems to control the cutting shape. The structure of the desktop computer is basically the same as that of the diamond band saw, except that the diamond wire saw with a smaller diameter is used as the cutting tool. LADY W-type diamond bead saw with desktop structure was produced by CANDIANI Company in Italy. The maximum machining height of the machine is 400mm, the length of the diamond rope is 5.4m, the steel metal frame and the drive motor drive the diamond wire to circulate through three transmission flywheels made of alloy cast aluminum. The guide bearing of the diamond wire is completed by two pairs of four small guide-bearing wheels. The bearing height of the guide wheel can be adjusted to meet the size requirements of the workpiece. The tensioning force of the diamond wire is provided by the pneumatic mechanism, and the cooling water is recycled through a special filtering device. Several groups of universal pulleys are used on the workbench, which can not only support the stone slabs but also enable the operator to move the stone slabs flexibly.

Vertical Diamond Wire Saw with Mainframe Structure

ROBOT TAGLIAMACINE model diamond wire saw of PELLEGRINI company, Italy, is a large vertical diamond wire saw. The drive flywheel and vertical support frame of the diamond wire of this machine adopt a fixed installation mechanism. The forward and backward movement of the stone conveyer and the rotation of the rotary table are controlled by the NC system. It is a two-dimensional/axis NC bead saw, which is specially used for cutting circular products of large-size stone blocks, such as the rotating surface of cylinders, cylinders, etc, The SPACE WIRE produced by the company is a vertical diamond wire saw with six-dimensional/six-axis control, which can be used to shape and cut various complex shapes of solid stone products with equal and unequal sections, cylinders or similar shapes.

The POLAR vertical diamond wire saw produced by the Italian BIDESE IMPIANTI company uses the CNC system to control the rotation of the worktable and the back-and-forth movement of the stone conveyer. It is a CNC diamond wire saw with a two-dimensional/two-axis CNC function and can cut special-shaped stone products. The machine adopts the frame structure of structural parts welded by profile steel and has two main and slave flywheels with a diameter of 1m. The diamond wire saw adopts a pneumatic tensioning system, and the transmission mechanism of moving parts is a screw transmission system. The greatest feature of this machine is that it uses a pneumatic pressure plate device to fix and clamp the products being processed to ensure the accuracy of the processed products. The company also produces small vertical CNC diamond wire saw machines. The rotation of the worktable and the movement of the stone conveyer are controlled by the CNC system. It also has a two-dimensional/two-axis CNC function, which is mainly used for processing small and medium-sized special-shaped stone products.

Diamond Multi-wire Saw for Special Shaped Stone

The diamond multi-wire saw used for processing special-shaped stones is mainly used for processing curved plates. Generally, it requires at least the control of a two-axis/dimensional numerical control system. It can process multiple circular plates or special-shaped stone products of other shapes at the same time. Here, two kinds of diamond multi-wire saws with two-axis/dimensional numerical control are introduced.

Diamond Five-wire Saw for Special Shaped Stone

PENTADIAM CNC diamond wire saw is produced by the Italian PELLEGRINI company. This machine is a CNC diamond multi-wire saw specially designed for cutting special-shaped stone products. It can process five curved plate stone products with a thickness of 1.5~3cm at the same time. Due to the increase in the number of diamond wires installed, a reinforced and heavy load-bearing body frame structure is adopted. The machining guide rails, sliding blocks, transmission devices and supporting structures in the master and slave flywheel lifting system are all under seal protection to prevent the intrusion of cooling water and stone powder when the sliding blocks are vertically raised and lowered.

Five active flywheels with a diameter of 2m are driven by variable-speed motors. The five driven flywheels are equipped with two sets of tensioning systems. One system is used to tension the five integrally assembled flywheels, and the other system is used to control the individual tensioning of each diamond wire. This patented tensioning system ensures that all five diamond wires are controlled by independent and constant tensioning force according to their respective lengths.

The vertical movement of the flywheel and the horizontal movement of the stone conveyer is driven by the AC servo motor controlled by the numerical control system. It is a diamond multi-wire saw numerical control cutting system with a two-axis/dimensional numerical control function and five diamond wires installed at the same time. The programming of special-shaped product graphics can be completed in the ISO system of the drawing table or the sawing machine, or in the office PC computer. The AutoCAD graphics file can be expanded and converted using the converter system.

Diamond Three-wire Saw for Special Shaped Stone

The shape structure, motion principle and control mode of the C2000-2 two-dimensional diamond multi-wire saw produced by CANDIANI Company in Italy are the same as those of other CNC wire saws for special-shaped stones. It is also composed of a frame, a lifting frame, a lifting mechanism, a drive guidance system for the diamond wire saws, a stone conveyer and an electric control system.

In order to drive the diamond three-wire saw, three guide grooves inlaid with wear-resistant rubber materials are processed on the rims of the driving wheel and the driven wheel. The outer edges of the two pairs of guide wheels supporting the diamond wire saw also adopt a three-groove structure. Since the machine is mainly used to process arc plates, the guide wheel must have the function of automatically tracking the cutting direction of the diamond wire saw. The driving wheel, driven wheel, guide wheel and rotary drive mechanism, lifting sliding seat, etc. are all installed on the lifting frame. A 15 kW drive motor is installed on one side of the drive wheel, and a hydraulic tensioning mechanism is installed on the driven wheel side to maintain the tension of the diamond wire saws during cutting. The lifting mechanism adopts the combination of a spiral transmission pair and spiral bevel gear transmission pair. The former is used to lift the frame, and the latter is used to change the transmission direction and synchronize the lifting of the master and slave flywheel sliders on both sides. The stone conveyer only needs to move back and forth on the guide rail. The frame, lifting frame and other structural parts shall be sandblasted, coated with anti-rust epoxy resin film and enameled to ensure that the external surface of the equipment is solid and durable. In addition to processing circular arc plates, the machine can also cut and produce stone slabs in the way of the diamond multi-wire saw.

The electric control system of the machine is equipped with a Siemens SINUMERK 810 GA3 numerical control system, which can simulate and display processing parameters, working status, product graphics and other information, effectively prevent possible processing errors, and enable the equipment to be in a fully automatic unattended working state.

Application of CNC Diamond Multi-wire Saw

The CNC diamond multi-wire saws are mainly used to process arc slabs. The maximum monomer height for processing arc slabs is equal to the maximum processing length of the diamond wire. The maximum chord length for processing arc slabs is equal to the maximum processing height of the diamond wire saw. The radius of the arc is unlimited. The current saw machine can process 3-5 arc slabs at a time, with high production efficiency. The machine can also produce flat slabs/plates. If it is equipped with the NC tracking function of the guide wheel, it can also process multiple special-shaped stone products of other shapes at the same time.

Conclusion

The special-shaped stone is the mainstream finished product of high-grade stone because of its extremely high added value. On the one hand, the diamond wire saw has a good cutting effect, which can create a variety of shapes. On the other hand, with the improvement of technology, the appearance of CNC equipment is that the processing precision is higher. The implementation of automation reduces the labor cost and improves the production efficiency. Therefore, diamond wire saw must be an indispensable processing tool in high-end stone product processing.

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