Cutting Consumables

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Cut-Off Wheels

The first step in the materialographic process is usually cutting. The purpose of cutting is to section a representative, yet manageable sample from a large or irregular piece of a given material, or to obtain sections in specific angles, for example cross sections.

The cut-off wheels are especially designed for Gatan machines, taking into consideration the most recent developments in wet cutting techniques. A large selection of different wheels assures that all materials can be cut without structural changes due to overheating or deformation, and guarantees maximum life time of wheels.

Selection of Cut-Off Wheels (Download)

Abrasive Wet Cutting

The most commonly used method to section a material is abrasive wet cutting. The cut-off wheels consist of two main components: abrasives and binders. During cutting, the cut-off wheel is flushed with a cooling liquid to avoid thermal damage and to remove debris, providing the highest possible material removal.

A Complete Product Range

Gatan offers a wide range of cut-off machines that cover the entire metallographic spectrum from delicate precision cutting to the cutting of very large objects. Sample size ranges from a few microns to a diameter of 125 mm. Gatan's selection of cut-off wheels is equally comprehensive, covering virtually all materials.

Abrasives and Wheel Types

Contrary to production line cutting where speed is the only thing that matters, materialographic cutting makes high demands on a number of factors: speed, plane surfaces, no thermal damage, and a minimum of deformation. Gatan cut-off wheels have been specially developed for materialographic specimen preparation: they produce specimens that are in perfect condition for the next preparation step. Various abrasives are used for the cutting of different materials: Al2O3 or SiC in a resin bond is used for cutting most metals. The selection of bond hardness must be based on an evaluation of the material's hardness.

Soft materials should be cut with cut-off wheels having a hard bond as the abrasive grains retain their cutting ability for a long time. Harder metals require a softer resin bond, which gives a fast replacement of abrasive grains. For the cutting of materials with hardness above HV 700, diamond or CBN (cubic boron nitride) are used as the abrasive. Because of the high cost of these abrasives only the outer rim of the wheel is covered with abrasive particles in a resin or a metal bond. Metal bonded wheels are used for cutting of brittle materials, such as ceramics or minerals, while bakelite bonded wheels are used for more ductile materials, such as sintered carbides or composites containing predominantly hard phases.

Cost efficiency

Selecting the right cut-off wheel is not just a matter of preparation quality, it is the best way to save time and consumables. Choosing the correct wheel for an application will produce a surface which requires less subsequent preparation steps. Therefore producing specimens in a shorter time and at a lower cost.

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