Abstract
Monowire block cutting machines can be used for natural stone block squaring operations and slab cutting operations from natural stone blocks. The plants where the cutting operations are performed demand high product quality with minimum operational costs. The purpose of this study is to develop cuttability chart for Burdur Dark Beige limestone sample based on unit wear and unit energy in monowire cutting system and also perform cutting optimization. For this purpose, the full automatically servo controlled monowire cutting system which can cut blocks in three dimensions were developed in Hacettepe University Mining Engineering Department. Cutting experiments were performed at different wire rotation speed (peripheral speed) and wire downward movement speed (cutting speed) on the limestone block which is transported to the laboratory. A cuttability abacus in monowire cutting system taking into consideration the unit energy consumption during cutting operation and unit wear on diamond beads was developed with Design Expert 7.1 software for Burdur Dark Beige limestone sample by using the results obtained.
1. INTRODUCTION
Diamond wire cutting machines are indispensible machines used in several stages ranging from marble block production in natural stone quarries to the final product in processing plants. Today these machines are widely used in natural stone quarries and have evolved continuously in line with the consumers’ demands so far and have opened a new era in natural stone mining [1, 2]. Generally, the diamond wire cutting method is used in natural stone quarries and decorative cutting tests, cutting and lifting basic construction structures, railway bridges, old concrete chimneys and dams [3].
The process of reducing large or irregularly shaped blocks produced in natural stone quarries to commercial size or arranging randomly sized blocks into cube or rectangular parallelepiped shapes is called ‘block sizing’ or ‘squaring’. Various machines are used in the squaring process on blocks taken from quarries where marble and limestone production is performed [4]. One such machine is the mono-wire block cutting machine, which is important for sizing natural stone blocks and of slabsawing from the blocks.
