Article In: cienciavitae
Advances on industrial characterisation of diamond tools and ornamental stones
ROC Maquina
— 2001
Key information
Authors:
Published in
September 2001
Abstract
Significant effort has been made by industrial and research institutions to develop useful technologies to improve the productivity of stone processing by the use of diamond tools. Portugal has been a key player in developing these technologies. 1ST in particular, has led the development of laboratory equipment based on industrial design forconducting R&D and pre-industrial trials using new tools and processing conditions for stone cutting and polishing. The equipment can also be used for the characterisation of stone materials. The two man systems comprisingthis equipment are as follows: 1) a polishing prototype slab processing machine to test new diamond tools; 2) a classification system for characterising stones and tools in cutting / grinding operations. The first has been used to test new polishing tools and to research into the effect of processing conditions on the quality of the stone surface with a view to establishing optimum conditions for processing stone slabs using diamond tools. It has been demonstrated by several preliminary tests that diamond tools can be used for all but the last 'gloss' stage and that less than half the number of processing stages normally used for conventional ceramic tools are required when using diamond tools. The classification equipment was developed based on the consideration that the optimum processing conditions for different stone materials would be different. This equipment aims to classify the stone materials based on their relative abrasiveness. Following an extensive testing procedure, this equipment also allows the study of tools, for example, the characterisation of new advanced matrix materials with smaller content of Cobalt. The equipment can also be used for conducting a systematic evaluation of tool performance, which can be expressed in terms of: the amount of material cut or ground by a tool; or the ratio between the energy used to remove a certain volume of stone. A market analysis vis-à-vis ornamental stone has been undertaken and the paper outlines the results of this analysis highlighting significant economic advantages of substituting the traditional ceramic tools bythe recent diamond tools. Also presented are the environmental benefits of using diamond tools.
Publication details
Authors in the community:
Luís Manuel Guerra da Silva Rosa
ist11630
Publication version
AO - Author's Original
Title of the publication container
ROC Maquina
First page or article number
22
Last page
35
Issue
42
Fields of Science and Technology (FOS)
materials-engineering - Materials engineering
Publication language (ISO code)
eng - English
Alternative identifier (URI)
https://scholar.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/records/4fb049a9-24cb-4392-9cff-bdcac0969ba3
Rights type:
Restricted access