Why Add PCD to Floor Grinding Segments?

Why Add PCD to Floor Grinding Segments & Shoes?

A look at the coating-removal workhorse of concrete floor refurbishment

It Starts with an Age-Old Jobsite Problem

Anyone who has refurbished an old factory floor has run into the same headache: that thick layer of epoxy coating, carpet adhesive, polyurethane coating, or old waterproofing membrane. If you attack it with conventional metal-bond diamond grinding segments, the tool cuts fine at first - then gradually "loads up." The segment face gets caked with softened resin and glue, cutting performance falls off a cliff, and you're forced to stop the machine, swap segments, and lose valuable time.

The root cause lies in how the tool works. Conventional diamond segments remove material by abrasive grinding: the diamond grit rubs and plows across the surface, and that friction generates heat. Polymeric materials like epoxies and adhesives soften and turn gummy as soon as they heat up, smearing into the pores of the metal bond matrix until the segment is effectively blinded. In the trade, this is known as glazing or gumming up (also called loading).

PCD - polycrystalline diamond - exists to tackle these stubborn coatings with a completely different approach: stop grinding, start scraping.

What Is PCD, and Why Is It So Effective?

PCD is produced by sintering diamond micro-powder under high temperature and high pressure into a polycrystalline layer, bonded onto a tungsten carbide substrate to form a composite insert. Its character boils down to three words: hard, tough, and sharp.

• Extremely hard: Its wear resistance far exceeds that of single-crystal diamond and tungsten carbide, giving PCD segments a service life typically 3 to 5 times longer than conventional metal-bond segments.
• Remarkably tough: The polycrystalline structure, backed by the carbide substrate, delivers excellent impact resistance. When the tool hits aggregate, screws, wire, or other hard debris embedded in the concrete, the PCD edge resists chipping - a decisive advantage over conventional carbide scrapers.
• Razor-like edge: The solid PCD insert forms one continuous cutting edge that works like a machined scraper, with a positive cutting geometry.

The Core Principle: Shear Scraping Instead of Abrasive Grinding

This is the key to understanding PCD's value.

Put simply: PCD doesn't grind the coating off - it scrapes it off in sheets, the way a scraper blade would. The material detaches as flaky swarf instead of smearing back onto the tool, and the low-heat shearing action never "melts" the resin or glue. This eliminates glazing and loading at the level of the underlying physics, not just the symptoms.

HuiceTools supply Diamond Grinding Shoes Segment with PCD.

Split-PCD Diamond Grinding Shoes on EZ change plate of HTC grinder

Four Practical Payoffs

1. Dramatically faster coating removal

With its sharp edge, a PCD segment strips thick coatings in a single pass - up to 1–4 mm of epoxy or adhesive per pass. Fewer back-and-forth passes means production rates far beyond conventional diamond tooling, which is exactly what large-scale warehouse and plant floor refurbishment projects demand.

2. No more glazing or loading

Against the classic "segment killers" - epoxy, carpet adhesive, elastomeric waterproofing membranes, heavy paint - PCD's scrape-and-clear action sustains its cutting ability throughout the job. No more constant stops to clean or swap segments.

3. Long service life, lower total cost

Three to five times the life of conventional segments means fewer tooling changes, less downtime, and lower labor cost; the impact resistance further reduces the risk of a chipped insert writing off the whole tool.

4. Controlled cutting that protects the concrete slab

PCD is designed to strip the surface coating, not to aggressively eat into the substrate. It leaves the cementitious surface intact, so once the coating is gone you can move straight into the next diamond-grinding step with a predictable, flat profile - minimizing later leveling work.

The Industry-Standard "Hybrid" Design

In practice, PCD floor tools are rarely pure PCD. The standard design is a PCD + diamond hybrid segment:

The PCD inserts sit slightly proud of the diamond grit - they contact the floor first and handle the coating removal, while the diamond segment behind them lightly levels the concrete substrate. Two jobs, one pass.

An Important Caveat: PCD Is Not for Polishing Concrete!

This is the most common rookie mistake. A PCD segment is extremely aggressive and leaves deep scratches in the slab. Its job is the first step of the process: heavy removal and coating stripping (surface prep).

The One-Sentence Summary

The next time you're staring at a glazed-over segment and a layer of old epoxy that refuses to come off, you'll know exactly who to call onto the floor.