Nv Bekaert Sa

Bekaert Advanced Cords Aalter Nv

Tom Baekelandt

Peter Persoone

Wouter Vanreyten

Roland Groenen

Jan Vaneecke

Hendrik Rommel

Albert R Somers

Nadine Van De Velde

Peter Goemaere

Bart Vanlandeghem

Steven Van Der Linden

Kris Van Hege

Jan Deconinck

Shanning Zhang

Raf Clauws

Dieter Ghillebert

Steven Derycke

Dominique Lefebvre

Kurt Mortier

A method to make sawing beads by means of laser cladding is disclosed whereby metal matrix powder is molten by means of a laser beam on a rotating sleeve while diamonds are thrown in the molten metal pool. By carefully controlling the temperature of the molten metal pool at or above 1150&#xb0; C. for less than 200 ms the internal graphitization of the diamonds can be limited. Although some of the diamonds in the sawing bead show internal graphitization it is demonstrated by the inventors that a sawing cord using the bead obtained by the method has an above standard sawing performance.

Sawing beads and method for making the same

In a sawing cord the three constituting elements of steel cord, sawing bead and sleeve polymer in between the beads must work optimally together. In order to improve the injection molding quality the inventors disclose an injection mold wherein the injection channels inject polymer from opposite sides of the steel cord into the injection cavity. The injection mold comprises two half molds that form the injection cavity when closed. Different preferred embodiments are described inclusive the use of channels having a tree structure, preferably a binary channel tree, preferably a balanced binary tree and most preferred a balanced binary tree with equal length pathways from feed channel to each injection channel. The use of heated channels is disclosed and the rules for balancing between the number of heated versus non-heated channels are explained. Furthermore the method to use such mold and the product resulting from the use of the mold are claimed.

Injection mould for sawing cord, method to produce sawing cord and the sawing cord resulting therefrom

Metal sleeves are used as carriers for the abrasive layer of sawing beads. Such sawing beads are threaded on a steel cord and are separated by a polymer thus forming a sawing cord for sawing of hard and brittle materials such as stone or concrete. These metal sleeves have a large influence on the overall performance as well as on the cost of the sawing cord. The inventors propose the method of metal injection molding to make the metal sleeves in large quantities with an optimized geometry which is not possible with the current methods for making the metal sleeves. Over and above the inventive sleeves are particularly well suited for application of the abrasive layer by means of laser cladding. Beads made by laser cladding on the inventive metal sleeves as well as sawing cords comprising such beads are therefore part of the invention.

Sleeve for a sawing bead obtained by metal injection moulding

A method is described for producing a sawing bead for use in a sawing cord. Sawing cords are used for cutting hard and brittle materials. In the method, laser cladding is used to form an abrasive layer on a small metallic tube () or sleeve. The abrasive layer () comprises a metal matrix material in which abrasive particles such as diamond, cubic boron nitride or other hard cutting materials are embedded. The metal matrix material preferably comprises an active metal that improves wetting and adhesion of the abrasive particles. Although the abrasive particles are relative large&#x2014;with a particle size in excess of 100 &#x3bc;m&#x2014;they are evenly distributed throughout the abrasive layer. This is achieved by letting the tube () rotate relative to the laser cladding system possibly in combination with a relative axial movement so that the cladding track loops on itself thereby forming an abrasive layer (). Additionally the method allows to shape the sawing bead for improved geometrical tolerances and centricity. Production times are less than ten seconds per bead and the method is easily automated.

Method to produce a sawing bead

The invention relates to cord () comprising a number of filaments twisted together. The peripheral surface of the cord () is at least partially coated with an adhesion promoting coating (). The adhesion promoting coating () comprises at least a first layer comprising a silicon based coating, a titanium based coating, a zirconium based coating or a combination thereof. The invention further relates to a composite material comprising such a cord () embedded in a polymer material. Furthermore the invention relates to a method to manufacture such a cord ().

Cord having an improved adhesion promoting coating

A sawing rope () with abrasive elements () fixed on a steel rope () with a polymer jacket () is described and claimed. The abrasive elements () are made of a metallic sleeve on which an abrasive layer is deposited by means of electrolytic deposition, by means of sintering or by means of cladding for example laser cladding. Characteristic about this sawing rope () in view of the prior known sawing ropes is that each sleeve shows a connection or closure. Such a connection makes it possible to attach abrasive elements () on the rope without having to thread them on the rope () as is needed when making prior-art sawing ropes. The inventive sawing rope () can therefore be made in long lengths in a very efficient way.

Sawing rope

The present invention is related a steel cord () comprising one or more strands (), said strands comprising at least two filaments, wherein the void spaces between at least two filaments of at least one of said one or more strands are at least partially filled with a composition comprising a thermosetting material (), characterized in that the thermosetting material () is a heat-curable one-component thermosetting material. Further, the invention relates to a steel cord () comprising at least two strands (), said strands comprising at least two filaments, wherein the void spaces between at least two strands are at least partially filled with a composition comprising a thermosetting material (), characterized in that the thermosetting material () is a heat-curable one-component thermosetting material.

Steel cord comprising a heat-curable one-component thermosetting material

The invention relates to a coupling agent to provide the coupling of a metal element to a vulcanizable elastomeric material whereby the coupling agent provides both binding to the metal element and reaction with the vulcanizable elastomeric material. The coupling agent comprises a macromolecular backbone and at least one functional endgroup. The functional endgroup is responsible for the binding to the metal element. The backbone has a molecular weight ranging between 1000 and 10000 and has at least one unsaturated carbon-carbon bond for reacting with the vulcanizable elastomeric material. The invention further relates to an article comprising a metal element at least partially embedded in a vulcanizable elastomeric material and comprising a coupling agent to provide the coupling of the metal element to the vulcanizable elastomeric material.

Growing community of inventors

Dadizele, Belgium

Tom Baekelandt