Wire Sawing

Wire Sawing is another cutting technique used typically when size, depth and accessibility of the cut make more conventional concrete cutting methods unsuitable. It is an ideal tool for cutting and removing reinforced concrete, such as bridge sections, jetties, columns or beams. Diamond wire sawing is particularly useful when extremely thick and/or awkward shapes need cutting.

A diamond beaded sawing wire can be wrapped around almost any size or shape of reinforced / mass concrete or masonry structure. The wire is fed through a series of pulleys, and tensioned to suit the operator's requirements.

Once positioned, the diamond sawing wire is pulled and rotated around the object at 25 linear meters per second. This enables the diamond beads attached to the wire to cut the material as it is pulled through.

The wire is cooled and flushed by free flowing water at all times: this helps to ensure ease of cutting and minimize overheating whilst in operation. As the wire is pulled through the object, any excess wire is stored on to a series of pulleys and stacked within the looping system. Concrete Cutting wire sawing machines are powered by electricity, petrol or diesel.

This technology is a relatively recent development. The method of setting up is similar to that of the track saw but in lieu of the saw blade a grooved pulley or drive wheel of 800mm diameter is fitted which takes the diamond wire. This wire is passed over any number of small idler pulleys to the surface being cut. The wire is a steel core of strands approximately 6mm diameter. of almost any length. It has diamond beads along its length approximately 30mm apart and 10mm diameter. The beads are separated by either small springs, plastic or rubber, depending upon the type of wire and the manufacturer. The wire is positioned over the pulleys and fed through pre-drilled holes in or wrapped around the concrete that is being cut and back over the drive pulley. The wire can be of almost any length and is joined by special crimps. Sawing is carried out by turning on the power and maintaining a constant speed, whilst applying pressure on the wire by gently applying a steady backward movement along the track.

The only restriction is the lifting and removal specifications of the job. Wire sawing is ideal for removing large sections of heavily reinforced concrete (as it can cut through heavy rebar and embedded steel beams), such as piers, towers and bridge sections, and cutting concrete in areas where work space is restricted. Wire saws can cut in any orientation, vertical or horizontal.

It can also be used under water. This advanced method of concrete and metal cutting offers many advantages including no vibration, relatively low noise, no dust and no disruption to neighbouring operations, thus greatly reducing costly downtime.