The German manufacturer Kern-Deudiam has invested a lot of development work in special drill bits for this task. The results are two product lines of drill bits which are said to deliver outstanding results. Type ‘Beto’ is for easy use and type ‘Unix²’ is for professional use, both said to deliver excellent results in terms of cutting speed and tool life. Even steel bard up to a diameter of 30mm can be drilled dry without any problems.

The company states that the airflow is very important, and due to dry drilling with soft percussion it can happen that the concrete core breaks easily at the top. This clogs the tube and air flow is stopped. To support air flow, Kern-Deudiam created the ‘aiRing’ which is available for all diameters up to 100mm; even if the core breaks and there will be ‘suct’ to the top of the tube, there is still sufficient space for air flow.

New ‘Dtox’ line

One hazard product used in diamond tools since the beginning is cobalt. Kern-Deudiam has put a lot of effort in developing alternative products without the use of cobalt to make supply chains and work even better. The result of all the development work of the last years is the new product family called Dtox. All products in the range were launched at bauma 2022, and already the cobalt free portfolio consists of wall saw blades and floor saw blades such as the SWF131 or SWF141, single segments and core bits.

The latest Dtox products added are new core bits DB121 with a waved segment (for an easy drilling start) and an iconic arrow in the segment showing the drilling direction. The DB121 has already been proven on lots of building sites, with the company reporting drilling very fast in reinforced concrete with a very high operational lifetime – and all cobalt free.

Next to this, Kern-Deudiam also developed a line of rings for 12.7mm – small diameter – core bits, which are also cobalt free. These rings are also available as single rings and support the user in self- brazing, even providing practical centring help. This means that the ring can be placed on the tube easily as it is self-centring due to a metal ring.