ANALYSIS OF DIAMOND SOCKETS WITH ULTRASONIC METHOD

One of the important factors that increase the cost in natural stone production is that the life of the cutters used in the stone-cutting process end in a short time. Determining suitable cutters for rocks has an important place in reducing natural stone processing costs. In natural stone production, the cost is significantly determined by cutter efficiency. Carbide is added to the matrix to increase the wear resistance of the metallic matrix, as well as to strengthen the bond at the diamond and matrix interface. Boron carbide is the hardest material known after diamond and cubic boron nitride. It is used to increase the wear resistance of the material due to its high hardness.The performance of the diamond socket can be determined after connecting to the diamond socket circular saw cutting machine and cutting. However, this stage based on trial and error causes negative effects such as loss of time for natural stone processing plants, an increase in labor costs, and disruption in production. Therefore, performing some analysis on the diamond socket to predict diamond socket performance provides opportunities to reduce these negative factors. One of these analysis methods is ultrasonic velocity measurement, a type of nondestructive testing. Ultrasonic velocity measurement is a method that provides information about material properties without damaging or affecting its use. Ultrasonic speed measurement can be used at all stages of production processes, such as product quality monitoring and the development of a new product. The ultrasonic velocity measurement method is principally based on the fact that solid materials are good conductors for sound waves. Ultrasonic velocity measurement methods are very informative for understanding the structures, properties, and different physical processes occurring in materials. Within the scope of the study, the correlation between the ultrasonic velocity values of the diamond socket and the metallographic parameters was examined. Initially, eight batches of diamond sockets were produced. One of the diamond sockets is unadulterated, so it is considered the reference socket. The other seven groups have different proportions (1% to 7%, step range; 1%) of boron carbide doped. Before the cutting experiments, the metallographic parameters of the diamond sockets, which are unit weight, porosity, Knoop hardness, and weight wear loss values were determined. Later, cutting experiments were carried out on granite samples with circular saws prepared with diamond socket groups. Then, the correlation between these determined parameters and the ultrasonic velocity obtained by the ultrasonic velocity measurement method applied to diamond sockets was investigated. As a result of the researches, it was determined that ultrasonic velocity values measured by the ultrasonic velocity measurement method have significant correlations between metallographic parameters of diamond sockets. Based on these correlations, the ultrasonic velocity measurement method can be used both for quality control of diamond sockets and for the prediction of cutting performance.