Diamond wire is a new type of cutting tool that has been put into production in recent years. It is formed by diamond particles uniformly fixed on a high-strength steel wire matrix with a certain distribution density. Based on the production process, diamond wire can be divided into electroplated diamond wire and resin diamond wire.
Diamond wire is mainly used for cutting hard and brittle materials such as photovoltaic silicon materials and sapphire, and the main traditional cutting method for such materials is mortar cutting. Therefore, the market space of the diamond wire industry mainly depends on two factors: one is the degree of substitution of diamond wire for traditional mortar cutting, and the other is the development status of the photovoltaic industry and sapphire industry.
(1) The substitution of diamond wire cutting for mortar cutting
The Mohs hardness of silicon is 6.5, and the Mohs hardness of sapphire is 9. Therefore, there are high requirements for the hardness of physical processing tools for materials such as silicon and sapphire. The traditional cutting process for silicon materials and sapphires is mainly slurry cutting, which uses steel wire as the matrix and silicon carbide (SiC) with a Mohs hardness of 9.5 as the cutting blade material. The steel wire drives the slurry mixed with cutting fluid and silicon carbide to rub during high-speed movement, and uses the grinding effect of silicon carbide to achieve the cutting effect. Diamond wire cutting technology is to fix diamond particles with a Mohs hardness of 10 on the steel wire matrix by electroplating metal deposition or resin bonding. The high-speed movement of the steel wire drives the diamond to move at the same speed, directly generating cutting ability.
Slurry cutting is free abrasive cutting, and its abrasive (slurry formed by a mixture of cutting fluid and silicon carbide) “rolls-embeds” between the cutting wire and the silicon material along with the high-speed moving cutting wire to achieve the cutting effect. Diamond wire cutting is fixed abrasive cutting, which is to fix the abrasive (diamond particles) directly to the cutting wire, and directly pass through the silicon material along with the high-speed moving cutting wire to achieve the cutting effect.
