Electro-Contact Discharge Dressing of Cut-off Grinding Disks for Natural Stone Machining

In cut-off grinding of natural stone the tool performance and stability mainly depends on the self-sharpening behavior of the cutting segments. Therefore, it is essential to adjust the bonding composition and the process parameters according to the specific separation mechanismus of the work piece material. Different tool wear mechanismus resulting from the different natural stone categories currently avoid the continuous use of one bonding specification. To overcome this limitation an electro-contact discharge dressing (ECDD) process was implemented in the cut-off grinding process. In this way, the backspacing of the bonding can be controlled in-process. The research presented in this paper focuses on the introduction of this technology in the field of stone machining . The demands for applying ECDD in the environment of a stone saw as well as the main influences and interdependencies of ECDD onto the segment topography are discussed.