Page 30 - MetalForming June 2011

Finishing
Abrasives:
Use the Right Tool for the Job
28
MetalForming/June 2011
www.metalformingmagazine.com
If your shop tasks operators with grinding and finishing to remove
and blend die marks on stampings, blend and polish welds and fine-tune die surfaces, use the advice here to ensure they select the right abrasive product for the job.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
Metalformers performing gen- the other end, nonwoven products
allow fabricators to polish and finish, remove oxidation and corrosion—sur- face preparation without disturbing the material surface.
Not all abrasives perform the same, and Long explains why.
“Ceramic abrasives developed in the late 1990s offer fabricators tremen- dous performance advantages com- pared to previous abrasive products— aluminum oxide, for example,” says Long. “While ceramic alumina grain have a higher purchase price, fabrica- tors need to recognize the return on investment they offer. With ceramic abrasives, they can expect three to four times the performance level compared to aluminum oxide, and as much as ten-fold improvement in product life.”
The performance improvement comes from the way the abrasive grains perform in service. Grind with a wheel loaded with aluminum oxide and you’ll note large chunks of each
eral fabrication and arc weld-
ing compile a long laundry list of tasks around the shop requiring grinding and finishing, including removal and blending of die marks, light to heavy stock removal in the tool- room, weld blending and polishing and fine-tuning of die surfaces. To select the right abrasive product for the job, the accompanying Abrasive Selection Guide covers a lot of ground; to hit the highlights, MetalForming spoke with an expert in the use of coated abrasive products—Dave Long, director of mar- keting, strategy and marketing infor- mation for Norton Abrasives.
Manufacturers of grinding and fin- ishing products offer abrasives of vary- ing types and grit sizes in four different types of substrate, selected for the task at hand: grinding wheel, flap disc, fiber disc and nonwoven products. At one end of the finishing spectrum, grinding wheels offer heavy stock removal; at