The Hi-CUT Manunet project allowed to obtain avantgarde results in different matters, such as the study of innovative materials for stone cutting application, the realization of a laboratory machine for the execution of controlled tests and the design of a new concept of cutting machines. Studies on innovative alloy compositions with extremely high elastic deformation (ex. Shape Memory Alloys - SMA) have been developed in order to operate in safer and more efficient way. These materials have been exploited because of their Superelastic behaviour and their better answer to the standard use conditions. The first prototype has been used for the realization of a set of tests in order to define its behaviour during cutting process. The positive tests outcome encourage to proceed in this direction, and to deepen analyze the possibility to exploit SMA characteristics into the stone sector.
Mathematical modeling have been done in order to analize diamond wire behaviour during cut and to predict funcioning peculiarities (fig. 1). The design, development and realization of a laboratory machine have been passed through the definition of actors involved, such as the needed instrumentations and the parameters to be registered and acquired. The laboratory machine basically consists in two uprights and a crosspiece. The structure contains any control components and the wheels for the diamond wire motion (fig. 2). The use of the laboratory machine allowed to acquire working parameters that play a cruciant role during the cutting process, and to better understand and define particular cutting conditions and their interconnections. The tests realized on the laboratory machine have been used for the design and optimization of an innovative cutting machine concept: the C-shape machine (fig. 3).
