Electro Contact Discharge Dressing of multi-layer wire rope grinding tools for reinforced concrete and steel processing (KESS)

The wire sawing process is increasingly being used in the deconstruction of nuclear facilities due to its flexibility in workpiece geometry and composition. The use on metallic structures represents the latest field of application of this cutting technology. Only single-layered abrasive beads are used in the rope grinding of metals since no self-sharpening of the abrasive beads mounted on the rope takes place when machining metal. In contrast to the multilayer abrasive beads, only one layer of abrasive grains is present in the bond. If the grains are worn, the entire rope must be replaced, resulting in high running costs. The goal of this research project is to qualify multi-layered abrasive beads for the cutting of pure metal structures and thereby increase the productivity of the dismantling process. In order to compensate for the lack of self-sharpening effect, the multi-layered abrasive beads have to be sharpened in an adopted dressing process . Electro Contact Discharge Dressing (ECDD) will be used due to the metal binding of the beads. Using this method, the bond can be reset in order to bring new sharp grains into engagement. The service life and thus the efficiency of the wire sawing technology when used on metallic structures is increased in this way.