Development Evaluation of Mechanical Properties of Brazed Diamond Wire

Fixed-abrasive wire saw, with its ability to cut hard brittle material, such as silicon ingots, crystals and quartz, has emerged as a leading technology for production in semiconductor and photovoltaic industry. There are some defects in conventional fixed-abrasive wire saw such as significant low holding abrasive ability, low machining efficiency, high running costs, etc. A new fixed-abrasive wire, namely brazed diamond wires have been developed to overcome these problems. In this paper, brazed diamond wire were carried out to braze two different size diamond grits onto two different thin steel wires by using a nickel-based powder as brazing alloy. The mechanical properties of brazed diamond wire were evaluated by tensile and breaking twist experiment. The experimental results showed that the heating in the brazing process has litter influence on the wire mechanical properties. The addition of brazed alloy and diamond grits sharply decreased the wire mechanical properties significantly, both in the tensile strength and breaking twist angle. Bigger diamond grit would make the accumulation of brazed alloy which leaded to the deterioration of diameter consistency of wires.