2" C Plane Sapphire on Multi Wire Saw

Diamond wire is the leading technology for use on hard brittle material. The smaller kerf and faster cut times have replaced conventional slurry technology for this type of material.

Diamond wire combined with tangentical cutting allows cut time 4x faster than slurry with better parellism of parts and TTV.

Kerf (or material loss) is some of the smallest in the industry from 155 microns.

Sectioned Expanded Metal Honeycomb ( Note lack of burrs)

Cutting with diamond wire should be considered when there is a need for cutting composites of dissimilar materials, because the gentle cutting action of diamond wire does not smear one material into another and does not snag at the border between two materials.

This feature is especially useful in failure analysis. Diamond wire can easily cut through stacks of ceramic/metal/plastic/silicon composites without snagging or smearing the various layers onto one another or even the voids between layers.

Cutting Profile's in Conductive and Non-Conductive Materials

Using a vertical diamond cutting wire and a programmable X-Y worktable, smooth profiles with tight radiuses to .005" and tight tolerances can be cut in all types of materials, including extremely hard materials such as silicon carbide, and other non-conductive materials such as hardened or sintered ceramics.

Because cutting with diamond wire is a gentle cutting process, and the diamonds used for cutting are micron sized, diamond wire cutting is generally a slow process compared to other cutting methods. Cutting speeds are seldom measured in seconds, but rather in minutes, and when cutting large parts or abrasive parts, in hours.

Photonics Part being diced into chips with Multi-Wire Dicing Saw

Diamond Wire Technology, LLC saws compensate for this by having automatic features such as cut-through switches that turn saws off when cutting is finished, so that saws can run unattended.

This feature is also valuable in dicing composites for use in making electronic components. Layered ceramic, metal foils and teflon or plastic foils are often produced in sheets then diced into components. Using diamond wire to do the dicing is effective for two reasons. First, the small kerf loss due to the fine wire used allows a high yield of product, and second, cutting through multiple layers does not cause a wiping of one layer into the next, thus saving added cleanup or processing steps.

Sliced Quartz Wafer Note Edge retention and ground appearance

When cutting rare or extremely valuable materials, diamond wire cutting should be considered, because of its narrow cutting width, called kerf. Slicing wafers of materials such as iridium or potassium titaneal phosphate literally save the price of the diamond wire saw in the act of cutting one small piece.

Jewelers who work in gold, platinum or titanium make similar savings. Even when cutting less expensive materials such as silicon or graphite, if a wafer needs to be cut to .010" and the kerf using diamond wire is .011" instead of .015" using another cutting method, significant savings can result.

Profile cut from a Block of Graphite

Cutting with a diamond wire saw generates very little heat because of the size of the diamonds doing the work, and the controlled cutting force that is applied. Often tests have been made showing a temperature rise of less than 10 degree F, during a cut. This feature is quite useful.

Heat causes smearing when cutting metals, which leads to burrs. Diamond wire will not generate burrs or smearing. Heat causes surface smearing of single crystal semiconductors, rearranging atoms which causes much secondary process. Cutting with diamond wire greatly reduces this smearing, thus saving secondary processing.

Superb Surface Finish

Fuel Injector

A diamond wire saw cuts with a gently lapping action not found with most other cutting devices. Fine diamonds, from 20 to 120 microns in size, are responsible for the cutting action, and cutting forces are quite small, almost always below one pound (or four hundred grams). Materials cut with diamond wire have an almost ground appearance.

Diamond Wire Technology, LLC has been manufacturing diamond wire saws since its incorporation in 1963. Today, we manufacture standard saws with a cutting cross section up to 12" x 12" and custom machines.

The principle of diamond wire saws originally came from slurry wire saws, Slurry saws were used to cut the stone for the pyramids of Egypt, and the King Tut exhibit that traveled several years ago included a small "precision" slurry wire saw.

In order to make a precision wire saw, the drawback of the slurry saw to produce a wandering cut with little flatness control, had to be overcome. A core wire was selected and produced with a very high tensile strength so that the wire could be stretched tightly, eliminating as much of the bow in the wire during cutting as possible since the wire bow allows the wire to drift in the cut.

Slurry applied to a wire can be somewhat random, allowing more cutting particles to migrate to one side than the other, thus causing the cutting wire to drift. Diamond Wire Technology, LLC solved this problem by developing a diamond impregnation process that deposits and seats diamonds uniformly around the circumference of the cutting wire.