Abrasives are materials that are used for finishing or
shaping a workpiece through rubbing causing it to worn out. Finishing the
material means polishing it for gaining a reflective, smooth surface. It can
also involve roughening as in matte, beaded finishes or satin. Abrasives are
often used for different domestic, industrial as well as technological
applications. This gives rise to a wide variation in chemical and physical
composition of the abrasives and shape of abrasive.
Different kinds of abrasive products are available in the
market. They come in different grades and have various purposes. The uses of
the products include polishing grinding, honing buffing, drilling, cutting,
lapping, sharpening and sanding. Given below is the list of abrasive products
that are available in the market. Depending on your use, choose the product
that is appropriate.
- Tumbling and Vibratory Finishing Machinery
- Tumbling Compounds
- Silicon Carbide
- Snagging Wheels
- Sandblasting Sand
- Polishing Belts
- Polishing Pads
- Plastic Blast Media
- Pressure Blast
- Metallic Abrasives
- Lapping Powder
- Laps
- Internal Grinding Wheels
- Honing
- Gear Lapping Compounds
- Gem Polishing
- Garnet
- Diamond Wheels
- Coated Abrasives
- Flour Abrasives
- Diamond Compounds
- Drum Tumblers
- Cutting Abrasives
- Abrasive Brushes
- Carbide Grinding Wheels
- Buffing Wheels
- Boron Nitride
- Buffing Compounds
- Wheels
- Rolls
- Pads
- Paper
- Flap Wheels
- Abrasives
- Disks
- Cones
- Cut Off Wheels
- Cloth
- Coatings
- Belts
- Blocks
The one that you choose for your use is going to depend
on the shape, nature and size of the workpiece that you are working upon. It is
also going to depend upon the finish that you want to achieve. The shape of the
abrasive products also plays a great role. Since they are available in
different shapes, you may find some of them causing problems not allowing you
to access certain areas of your workpiece. So, you need to choose very
carefully.
If the product chosen is a wrong one, than you may find
unwanted scratch marks being left on your workpiece and removal of too much of
the material if the product is too hard. However, these are not only the
adverse effects that wrong selection of abrasives may cause, they can even:
- Destroy the usefulness of the product
- Increase the products friction
- Cause an object to wear out before time
- Erode or penetrate a coating
