Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/712836
EquipmentWorld.com | August 2016 67 Husqvarna Construction Products Americas D iamond grooving and diamond grinding are usu- ally mentioned together, but although the same machine is used, they have two separate pur- poses. In grinding, the diamond blades cutting the concrete are spaced closely together to cut off a fraction of an inch off the surface to produce a level, smooth and quiet road- way that also provides friction and texture. Travis Brandt, with Pinnacle Grinding & Grooving, likens the texture to corduroy. Grinding is used in both preservation work – smoothing out older roads and differentials between joints – and on new pavements to level out imperfections. Grooving involves blades space further apart. In some cases, there is six times the amount of space between the blades in grooving as there are in grinding. Its primary function is to give water a way to channel off the roadway to help prevent hydroplaning. The primary difference between the two from a design standpoint is the spacing of the blades, and the resulting amount of time to complete the work. Grinding takes sig- nificantly longer because there is more concrete being cut. Grinding work presents the bigger challenge over groov- ing, say the contractors we talked with. "Grinding work in the field is much more difficult," says Scott Elkins with Quality Saw & Seal. "Crews out grinding and grooving face changing conditions in not only physical conditions, but in switching between the two types of work and varied road surfaces. Many times they are working on older roadways that are in poor condition, and when they're finished the public thinks the refreshed surface should ride like a new roadway." "With grinding, you've got to meet a spec and you've got a stack full of heads (blades), so you've got more friction against it," Brandt says. "The production is much slower." Grooving or grinding?