Diamond Grinding
The purpose of diamond grinding is to remove bumps and reprofile the surface of concrete pavements. This improves the riding comfort to motorists and decreases the severity of dynamic or impact loads from heavier vehicles. Impact loads occur as trucks bounce vertically on their suspension system while traveling across bumps or dips in the road surface. Greater vehicle bounce increases tensile stresses in the slabs and consequently decreases the life of the pavement.
Diamond grinding also smoothes out roughness from warped or curled slabs and removes ruts from studded tires or excessive tire wear. On a comprehensive CPR project, diamond grinding visually blends the surface of full-depth or partial-depth patches into the surrounding concrete and removes birdbaths to improve surface drainage.
Diamond grinding is done with specially designed equipment that uses gang-mounted diamond saw blades to cut through bumps in the concrete surface. In essence, the function of diamond grinding equipment is similar to that of a common wood plane. The saw blades shave off the fault or bump and the rear wheels follow behind in the smoothened path.
Diamond grinding equipment is also used to remove bumps from new pavements. The equipment may be smaller for new pavement bump grinding, but many of the same principles apply.
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