Large Bead Coated Abrasive Articles

Our large erodible abrasive beads can also be coated on web backing materials to form a new class of abrasive articles. These abrasive discs, sheets, and belts will all offer extraordinary long abrading lives compared to conventional abrasive products.  In addition, the beads can contain a variety of abrasive materials including diamond, aluminum oxide, CBN and others. Also, a wide range of selected abrasive particles sizes can be encapsulated in the erodible beads.

 

Continuous Bead Coated Webs

The large equal-sized beads can be coated on thick continuous flexible webs using industry-standard abrasive media production techniques. The difference is that this new abrasive media has large 0.015 inch abrasive beads compared to the typical 0.002 inch beads coated on very thin lapping film backing. The erodible spherical beads contain large quantities of abrasive compared to the small beads.  The abrasive discs, sheets and strips (for belts) can be fabricated from these webs by various conventional converting techniques.

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Beads vs Pyramids

Spherical-shaped bead abrasives offer many advantages over conventional

pyramid-shaped abrasives. Spherical shapes have a mass center that is

elevated well above the backing surfaces. By comparison, pyramid shapes

have mass centers that are very close to the backing surface. Most of the

abrasive in the spheres is used before workpieces contact the backing but

most of the pyramid heights are quickly worn down close to the backing

after a modest amount of abrading. This increases the likelihood that a

workpiece will come in abrading contact with the backing before fully

utilizing all of the abrasive particles when using pyramids.