Quarry & Extraction
Wire Saw
A wire saw cuts stone with a loop of steel cable that runs at high speed around pulleys and is pulled through the rock, with water to cool the cut. In quarries it cuts blocks away from the bench and squares them; in plants, single-wire and multi-wire machines cut blocks into slabs, thick pieces and shapes. Today the cable carries diamond beads, which replaced the older helicoidal wire that cut by dragging sand and water through the stone.
In the quarry, the crew first drills two holes that meet behind the rock to be cut. The wire is threaded through them, closed into a loop and fitted to the machine's drive wheel. The machine moves back along a rail as it cuts, which keeps the wire tight and the cut in one plane. A few such cuts separate a large mass from the bench, and more cuts divide and square it into blocks a saw can take.
In the plant, a multi-wire saw runs dozens of diamond wires side by side and cuts a whole block into slabs in one pass. In granite it has taken over much of the work of the older gang saws, because it cuts faster and needs no steel shot. Single-wire machines cut thick slabs, blocks to size and curved shapes.
In Noria Strata
In Noria Strata the wire saw is one of the quarry's machines: its hours and fuel come from a phone, a diamond wire change is logged as a service, and the fuel goes into the cost of every block.