CHOOSING THE RIGHT DIAMOND BLADE

There are many factors to consider when choosing which UDT Diamond Blade to purchase. These include:

The Price
For frequent use and larger jobs it is better to choose a more expensive Diamond Blade as they have the ability to deliver the lowest cost per cut, however for occasional use and smaller tasks, it is quite often preferable to choose the lower priced Diamond Blade.
UDT have three main grades of blades - TRADE Series Diamond Blade, PREMIUM Series Diamond Blade and PROFESSIONAL Series Diamond Blade and these sometimes have different pricing in each category to create more options for you.

Quality and Size of Saw or Grinder
- It is all based around the horsepower and RPM of the implement being used to complete the task. - Diamond Blade are rated to match the RPM of the saws and grinders. High speed handheld saws and high speed cut-off saws need blades that are rated at higher RPM.
- Check both aspects of your machinery prior to choosing the product to suit. This ensures not only value for money, but also more importantly SAFETY.

The Material Being Cut
It is most important to correctly identify the material you are going to cut prior to choosing a Diamond Blade. This has a major effect on the cutting speed and life of the Diamond Blade.

Most materials fall into four categories: Hard - Medium to Hard - Medium to Soft - Soft. The harder the material being cut, the softer the bond holding the diamonds needs to be. This allows the bond to wear and exposes the diamonds to cut the product and releases the diamond before it glazes over and makes the blade useless. Conversely to that when cutting soft materials, it is important to have a strong bond that holds the diamond segments and increases the life of the blade.

Many people choose the hardest blade and believe it will cut everything. This is a completely false belief as hard bonded blades will not cut hard product! As a general rule, determine the material which will be cut most often, or the material for which blade performance is most important.

When cutting steel reinforced concrete you have to consider the size of the reinforcing rods. Diamond Blades have a low efficiency in cutting through steel.

Choose blades to suit your application

UDT have colour coded their product to allow you more flexibility when choosing the correct Diamond blade:
 

Product Application	Colour	Details of Use
Marble	Pink	Diamond Blades manufactured for specialised hard marble application
Granite - Hard	Red	Two types of Diamond blade in varying bond made for different hardness of granite
Granite - Medium	Red
Sandstone	Green	Diamond blades manufactured for specialised sandstone application
Sandstone - Clay	Purple	Diamond blades manufactured for a combination of sandstone and clay paver application
Clay	Blue	Diamond blades manufactured for specialised clay paver application
Concrete - Reinforced Hard	White	Four types of Diamond blades in varying bond made for varying hardness of concrete
Concrete - Reinforced Medium	White
Concrete - Hard	White
Concrete - Medium	White
Concrete - Ashphalt	Grey	Diamond blades manufactured for a combination of concrete and ashphalt application
Ashphalt - Limestone	Black	Diamond blades manufactured for a combination of ashphalt and limestone application

Cutting with Wet or Dry Diamond Blades
Obviously the machine you are utilizing is one of the major factors in deciding to use wet or dry Diamond blades. When using a hand held power saw it is not safe to have water involved due to electrical power.

As an overall rule, you cannot use wet Diamond blades without water but you can utilize dry blades in both wet and dry applications.

For concrete saws it is advisable to operate wet cutting due to depth of cut and water keeps the Diamond blade cooler. Tile and masonry saws can be done with either wet or dry but wet applications control dust.

Segment Height
Diamond blade segment height by itself is not a true measure of a blade's value.

It is sometimes hard to measure segment heights because of the laser welding or brazing process which is non- diamond bearing.

It is believed that the higher the segment, the longer the life of the blade, but this is not always true. The diamond size, concentration and quality incorporated in the segments have a far greater effect than the segment height. So before you go down the path of selecting higher segments, be sure you have taken all other aspects into account.

Segment height can have a positive bearing, however if the quality of the segments are similar. Quite often, people choose cheaper Diamond blades, only to discover the segments are miniscule and wear out in a very short time.

Summary
All of the above choices have an effect the following:

SAFETY - The MAJOR priority all the time.
DIAMOND BLADE LIFE - Keeping the blade longer for more applications.
COST - Initial cost of the blade and the cost per cut.
EFFICIENCY - Getting the job done in a reasonable time.
MACHINERY USED - What machines you have to do the application.