Professional methods of concrete sawing and drilling are prevalent in countries like USA, Japan, Australia and Europe. In India, it can be still a young but growing industry. Due to a heightened shelling out for infrastructure projects and residential & commercial construction, India holds tremendous potential when it comes to diamond tools and concrete sawing and drilling.
Another critical factor inducing the adoption of these sophisticated methods is the constantly rising labour costs. In the last decade, concrete and construction industry has experienced sharp increases in labor rates and overhead expenses. Because of the high labor and overhead costs involved in most sawing and Core cutting machine, the rate with which the task is performed has become vital. Using outdated cutting &drilling techniques and drilling equipment that heavily depends on guessing and operator testing only cause waste of time and money. Today, as a way to remain competitive, the contractors are under pressure to embrace more sophisticated ways of concrete sawing & drilling.
“The niche for floor saws, wall saws and high powered drilling machines are in a nascent stage today but growing at about 40% each year as the cost of labor rises, the use of machines to quicken work and increase productivity and quality of work boosts phenomenally. Presently about 600 machines Floor Saws, Wall Saws and Powered Drilling Machines have been in operation. Low Powered Handheld Drilling and sawing are in many thousands and is particularly hard to give even an approximate number.” – M.Venkatesh, Executive Director, Diabu Diamond Tools
Professional diamond concrete cutting systems can offer significant advantages over conventional concrete removal methods. Included in this are reduced downtime, precision cutting, maintenance of structural integrity, reduced noise, dust and debris, limited-access cutting, and the cabability to cut heavily-reinforced concrete.
There are actually not many organized players from the core cutting arena. Most of them are extensions of worldwide manufacturers like Hilti, TYROLIT, Husqvarna and Diabu. As with some other industry, the market is flooded with Chinese equipment and fly by night traders who sell low priced, poor quality machines from China with the purpose of making quick money. These machines, however, have no post sales support nor are the machines suited and built to function in the Indian environment. Mr. Akhil Jain, authorized and exclusive distributor of Husqvarna’s power tools in India says, “Users with low budget prefer to choose poor quality Chinese makes only end up spending more on repairs.”
With regards to manufacturing facilities in India, only about 25% are produced indigenously, the others imported and the bulk from China. Hilti which acquired Bhukhanvala Diamond Systems during 2010 is using it as being its manufacturing facility to advance develop and expand the development facility for diamond tools and disks and also to strengthen its position inside the Indian diamond consumables market.
“HILTI was the pioneer in introducing diamond coring technology in India. Throughout the last maybe five or ten years, the technology has matured to a stage where even on residential sites, coring may be the preferred technology for fast, vibration-free penetrations. We currently see the market for coring at more than 50 crores.” Shyam Raghunandan, Head Marketing, Hilti India
Manval Goel, Business Head – Construction at TYROLIT India Superabrasives Tools believes the current market size of controlled concrete dismantling in India is near to INR 120 crores. This consists of branded and unbranded market at the same time. TYROLIT has a variety of core cutting electric, hydraulic and petrol driven machines. TYROLIT’s machines is capable of doing drilling approximately 1000 mm diameters. Its Ultimate Drilling Machine (UDM) is actually a self-propelled gasoline driven EI core cutting machine highly suitable for drilling at runways. TYROLIT has 27 Global Production Units and its core cutting machines and drills are created in Switzerland, Austria, United statesA. along with other parts on the planet. These machines have a manufacturing warranty of 1 year. Also these are typically quite sturdy machines and require very low mainte-nance. TYROLIT’s Unique Service Concept provides a number of the service requirement at site to deal with emergency Breakdowns.
Diabu Machines has entered the Indian market. Designed bearing in mind the Indian working conditions and the Indian operator, Diabu’s floor saws, wall saws and drilling machines are built in the platform of robust, rigid and high productivity. Diabu uses high quality and right configuration steel, long life and maintenance free bearings, dust and water protected motors, bearings and all sliding and rotating parts. Most if not all fasteners are produced from either stainless-steel or rust proof and tensile steel. In addition to being user friendly, maintenance is additionally very easy with easy to access grease and oil points.
“There can be a significant requirement for education about controlled dismantling as being a technology inside the construction industry. Other challenges relate to acceptability and adaptability of the technology in some of the major projects, drilling and sawing vis-à-vis the conventional chisel and hammer, economics associated with the technology as this is expensive, application with illiterate labor and localized accessibility of the technology.”
Choosing the proper blade (for the saw, the material and also the job) is the most important aspect in getting maximum performance. Various other variables also affect blade performance. Changing any variable could have an impact on cutting speed and blade life.
Concrete cutting becoming an application oriented process, blades are supplied depending on end application requirement and job site requirements. The principle concrete cutting tools that happen to be utilized add the wall (or track) saw, the flat (or slab) saw, the core drill, and also the wire saw. Wall sawing is normally specified to cut precise dimensional door, vent and window openings. Straight in addition to bevel cuts are possible using the wall saw. The wall saw is also an excellent option for creating precise openings in virtually any concrete structure. Flat sawing is normally employed to cut horizontal flat surfaces such as floors, bridge decks, and pavement. Flat saws are normally employed to provide expansion joints, remove damaged pavement sections, clean and repair random cracks dexqpky76 repair, and remove concrete sections for demolition purposes. Core drilling techniques are utilized when precise, circular cuts are essential such as openings for plumbing, electrical and HVAC installations, creating holes for routing cables or placing anchoring bolts, installing load carrying devices or dowel bars, or concrete sample analysis. Wire sawing can be used for removal of thick parts of concrete. It is great for removing large parts of heavily reinforced concrete, including piers, towers and bridge sections, and cutting concrete in areas where work space is fixed.
Often the decision of cutting wet or dry depends on ones preferences and job requirements. While most sawing or drilling is wet, conditions for example water scarcity in sites, requirement to keep the web page clean of water/slurry because of proximity with existing office/ factory /commercial/residential space, proximity to electrical or another such dangerous areas may warrant dry cutting. However, cautions Mr.Venkatesh of Diabu, “If the cutting is dry it usually is preferable to use saws which can be laser welded or atleast have special reinforced brazing. Using such blades ensure that the extremely high heat generated during dry cutting will not damage the blade which may also cause injury and cause accidents.”
Aside from the kind of cutting and dry or wet cutting, kinds of concrete also influence your choice when choosing a blade. The size of curing time after concrete is poured greatly affects just how a diamond blade will connect to it during cutting. Curing may be impacted by weather (temperature, moisture and time of the year) and the composition (admixtures, aggregate and sand). Cured concrete is normally set at least two days. The sand is utterly bonded using the mortar and the concrete reaches full hardness. Concrete is generally within its green state for 6 to two days after it really is poured. With this early state, the sand will not be completely bonded with all the mortar as well as the concrete doesn’t reach full hardness. When cutting green concrete, the sand loosens more readily, and flows more freely from the slurry, and produces much more abrasion over a diamond blade. Undercut protection is vital when cutting green concrete to avoid excessive wear on the steel core in the segment weld. Green concrete sawing is typical when concentrating on new construction projects like; motorways, runways, driveways & industrial flooring.
Both size and type of aggregate have a great impact on the complete hardness of concrete and also the blade to choose. The aggregate could make up around 75% from the total volume. As a general rule, larger aggregate will have the concrete act harder, slowing drilling process. Smaller aggregates tend to make a blade cut faster. Sand is section of the aggregate mix, and determines the abrasiveness of concrete. “Small aggregate” is usually sand. Sand may either be sharp (abrasive) or round (non-abrasive). To discover the sharpness of sand, you should know in which the sand is from. Crushed sand and bank sand are usually sharp; river sand is generally round.
Choice for core drilling operation will also requires learning the diameter of your final hole required, surface finish in the drilled hole, surface and accessibility of the drilling area.
“Tool horsepower, tool reliability and convenience may also be important for selecting the most appropriate tool”, adds Mr. Shyam Raghunandan of Hilti, India.
Manav Goel, of TYROLIT summarizes, “Overall, factors like diameter in the core, entire core, power and speed of motor, percentage reinforcement, grade of concrete, horizontal or vertical drilling, Transformer core cutting machine, anchor or vacuum fixation aid in deciding which concrete core cutter for the project.”
Conventional concrete cutting and drilling methods generated large amounts of dust. While wet cutting or drilling operation will not generate dust as it uses water, the instance of dust is nearly totally avoided. However, the slurry generated has to be cleaned regularly. For dry cutting, most manufacturers have dust extraction systems as accessories.
Besides saw speed, the simplicity of transport and installation comes into play in jobsites which may have single doors or window openings to be reduce or in which the saw must be constantly moved from a single floor to the next. Some machines are employed in a modular system thus bringing in certain advantages, since the single component might be easier transported and installed.
With regards to costs, these machines are not expensive machines of course, if regularly maintained, the cost of maintenance may be kept only any machine an annual spend of about 6% – 10% of the cost of the appliance.
The popularity is clearly lighter, lesser, faster and a lot more profitable. But what comes with this development is a stronger demand that operators be trained effectively. Also, contractors must be made aware or there must be pros who can recommend the very best techniques and equipment for efficient and price-effective cutting at any stage of the project.
“On the service front, Prime Technologies carries a band of service engineers who are always roaming and actively engage themselves in providing solutions and technical advice to clients. Also, they are involved with training the dealers and customers’ maintenance personnel. They perform an important role in the day-to-day operation of the company. “Akhil Jain, CEO, Prime Technologies.