In a wire saw, wire is unwound from a reel onto at least two wire guide rollers (WGRs). The WGRs are notched at a predefined and constant spacing. The notching process is known as grooving the WGR. The wire is guided through each groove to form a wire web. The rotating WGRs move the wire web in one or both directions, depending on the application. Finally the wire is wound back onto a reel.
A suspension or slurry, usually a mixture of silicon carbide and polyethylene glycol, is fed through nozzles onto the moving wire web and produces mechanical abrasion. While the workpiece to be sliced is lowered into the wire web, the wires coated with the slurry cut the material into slices, or wafers, the thickness of which is defined by the distance between the grooves of the WGRs.
