All about abrasive products:
Abrasives or abrasive products are used to remove
surface materials such as metal, ceramics, glass, plastics, and paint.
Abrasives and abrasive products include wheels, discs, belts, blast machines, and
sandblasters, as well as sheets, rolls, and hand pads. Some abrasives and
abrasive products are designed for use on bench or back stand grinders, while
others are designed for use on portable or handheld grinders or sanders. Bonded
abrasives, which include grinding wheels, use abrasive grains held together in
a matrix of glass, resin, rubber, or other binders. Coated abrasives consist of
an abrasive grain layer adhesively bonded to the surface of a cloth belt, fiber
disc, plastic film, paper sheet, or another backing.
Grit size measures the abrasive grains in a matrix or
bonded to a surface. Typically, grit sizes are based on ANSI (U.S.), FEPA
(European), JIS (Japanese), or Micron-graded standards. Typically, bonded
abrasives and grinding wheels use ANSI - Bonded and FEPA - F grit size
standards. Coated abrasives, grinding belts, and sanding discs use ANSI - CAMI
and FEPA - P standards. Coarse grains, or grits, are used to remove large
amounts of material, while medium grains are used to remove intermediate
amounts. Fine grits are used in finishing and deburring applications, while
very fine grits are suitable for deburring.
Abrasives and abrasive products use several different
types of abrasive grains. Aluminum oxide, the most
common industrial mineral in use today, is used either individually or with
other materials to form ceramic grains. Aluminum oxide is also combined with emery and crocus
to produce abrasives suitable for finishing applications. Other types of
abrasive grains include garnet, tungsten
carbide, silicon carbide, and
alumina-zirconia. Super-abrasive diamond pastes are useful in ferrous
polishing or lapping applications where heat and reactivity are not
factors. Cubic boron nitride (CBN), a super abrasive grain with a hardness second to diamond and a cubic crystal structure, provides superior
grinding performance on carbon and alloy steel.
There are several different backing types for
abrasives and abrasive products. Cloth backing is used with abrasives and
abrasive products designed for aggressive applications such as abrasive
planing. Fiber backing is denser than cloth and contains vulcanized or
chemically treated cotton or cellulose fibers; however, fiber may curl under
humid conditions. Film backing uses abrasive grains on plastic film, while foam
and sponge backing uses abrasive grains bonded onto a foam layer, sponge, felt, or other soft, resilient materials. Similarly, metal backing uses
abrasive grains bonded onto a metal backing such as aluminum or brass. Other
types of backing include paper, screen, non-woven, or aggregate materials.
Abrasives and abrasive products are used in wet and dry grinding, sanding,
cleaning, polishing, lapping, and surface preparation in a variety of
industries, including metalworking, woodworking, ceramics,
and semiconductors. Abrasives and abrasive products are also used to sharpen
tools, cut optical components, and finish concrete.
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