A diamond blade is a saw blade which has diamonds fixed on its edge for cutting hard or abrasive materials. There are many types of diamond blade, and they have many uses, including cutting stone, concrete, asphalt, bricks, coal balls, glass, and ceramics in the construction industry; cutting semiconductor materials in the IT industry; and cutting gemstones, including diamonds, in the gem industry.
Diamond blades are available in different shapes:
Diamond blades designed for specific uses include marble, granite, concrete, asphalt, masonry, and gem-cutting blades. General purpose blades are also available.
Blades using diamonds embedded in a metal coating, typically of nickel electroplated onto a steel blade base, can be made to be very thin—blades can be tens of micrometres thick, for use in precise cuttings.
Vacuum brazed diamond saws are manufactured by welding synthetic diamond particles to the outside edge of the circular saw blade in a vacuum brazing furnace. All of the diamond particles are on the exterior cutting edge of the blade, with no metal-diamond mixture. Depending on the manufacturer's recommended blade application, vacuum brazed blades will cut a wide variety of material including concrete, masonry, steel, various irons, plastic, tile, wood and glass.
Finer synthetic diamond grits will reduce the chipping of tile and burring of steel and provide a smoother finish. Larger diamond grits will provide a higher cutting speed, but will be more likely to cause chipping, burring, or cracking. Fire departments require blades to be made with a very large diamond grit, to tear through material quickly. An intermediate grit size is used by the production industry.