How to select a right cup wheels

Diamond Cup Wheels-How To Select The Right One.

A diamond cup wheel is a type of diamond grinding wheel specifically designed for grinding, and smoothing hard surfaces such as concrete, masonry, granite, and marble. These cup wheels are made with diamond particles bonded to a metal matrix, providing high abrasion resistance and durability.

When you have a grinding job, choosing the right diamond cup wheel is essential to achieving high productivity and optimal finishing. There are too many kinds of diamond cup wheels on the markets, here are some tips that can help you select the right grinding cup wheels.

1. Know the materials hardness

The first thing to consider when selecting the diamond cup wheels is the material that you’re going to grind. You need to examine the material you’re working with and consider hardness.

Let’s take concrete grinding as an example.

The hardness of the concrete surface has a direct impact on which metal bond diamond tool you will start grinding with when polishing or preparing for a coating. Determining the concrete surface hardness should be the first step.

The Mohs hardness scale is a widely used method for measuring the relative hardness of minerals. The scale ranges from 1 to 10, with 1 being the softest and 10 being the hardest.

You can use a Mohs hardness test kit to know the concrete surface hardness.

2. Choose the right Appropriate bond

After you get the hardness of a concrete surface, you will know which metal bond the diamond tool need to be.

There is one simple guide when you select the metal bonds: The softer the concrete, the harder the metal bond material needs to be. That is, soft concrete requires Hard bond diamonds while hard concrete needs soft bond diamonds

3. Know the ideal diamond grit

Usually, diamond grits are indicated by numbers that represent the size of the diamond in the grinding tool. The lower the number, the larger the diamond and the coarser the grit size. Conversely, the higher the number, the smaller the diamond , and the finer the grit size.  Diamond grit sizes typically range from 8 to 3000, with 8 being the coarsest and 3000 being the finest.

Coarse diamond grit sizes such as 16-40 are used for aggressive grinding and removal of thick coatings, adhesives, and uneven surfaces; Medium diamond grit sizes like 40-80 are used for general grinding and removal of moderate coatings, adhesives, and imperfections;

Fine diamond grit sizes such as 100-200 are used for fine grinding and polishing of the concrete surface to achieve a smooth and polished finish.

4. Wet or Dry

Wet or Dry sometime affects a lot during a grinding job. Wet grinding can help cool the surface area of large materials, in this case you would need a large diameter diamond cup wheel.  Smaller diameters are more effective for dry grinding applications.