Abrasive media is made up of alumina, silicon carbide or other material abrasive grain held together by a binder. The abrasive grain functions as a cutting edge to grind the workpiece, and the binder fulfills the role of holding the abrasive grain.
Compared with a grindstone, 20 to 30% of a grindstone is made up of pores, whereas, with abrasive media for barrels, pores do not account for a large percent, at most a maximum of 10% due to the balance between grinding amount and wear amount.
Given the material, shape and size of the workpiece and the purpose of finishing, the most suitable abrasive media from among the 1,500 abrasive media products made by us can be offered.
Our unparalleled expertise and years of experience in finishing is invaluable in the choice of abrasive media.
Abrasive media is broadly divided into the following five types.
Vitrified Media
This abrasive media is made by firing abrasive grain with a clay-based binder (feldspar, silica, clay, etc.) at high temperature. At most, pores account for about 10% of this abrasive media. It is used in rough cutting, medium cutting and fine finishing applications depending on the purpose of finishing the workpiece. This media comes in various shapes and sizes.
Alumina Media
Except in some special cases, this abrasive media does not contain abrasive grain. This media is formed by firing alumina fine powder, which doubles as a binder and an abrasive, at high temperature, and has almost zero pores. This media comes in various shapes and sizes, and is used for fine finishing and luster finishing depending on the purpose of finishing.
Plastic Media
This abrasive media uses thermosetting resin or thermoplastic resin as a binder, and has almost zero pores. It is used for medium finishing and fine finishing depending on the purpose of finishing. Although its capabilities are lower than those of vitrified media, it has the feature of causing fewer secondary burrs (i.e. prevent soft burrs from remaining operation ) in the finishing of soft metals.
Organic Media
This abrasive media is formed by crushing the cores of walnut shells or corn into fine pieces and coating abrasive grain onto the surface of these pieces with wax. This media is used in luster finishing in dry finishing applications.
Metallic Media
This metallic media is made up of chrome steel or stainless-steel balls. It contains no abrasive grain and has zero pores. As it acts to strike (or "peening") the surface of workpieces, the surface can be finished to a luster finish and hardened (i.e. fatigue strength improved) at the same time. If spherical media cannot reach all parts of the surface, irregular shaped media is also available.
Abrasive Media Comparison Table
This table compares the benefits of the above five models.
| Vitrified Media | Alumina Media | Plastic Media | Organic Media | Metallic Media | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Binder Main Components | Feldspar, Silica, Clay | Aluminum | Thermosetting resin, Thermoplastic resin |
Walnuts, Corn | Chrome steel Stainless steel |
| Purpose of Finishing | Rough cutting to fine finishing, Luster finishing |
Fine finishing, Luster finishing | Medium finishing, Fine finishing | Luster finishing | Luster finishing |
| Surface Finish Roughness (Ra)※ | 2μｍ～ 0.5μｍ |
0.5μｍ～ 0.02μｍ |
1μｍ～ 0.0095μｍ |
0.5μｍ～ 0.005μｍ |
Unique polishing surface by peening effect |
| Other | Suitable to numerous finishing purposes | No abrasive grain | Little secondary burring | Dry finishing | Surface hardening |
※Surface roughness Ra indicates the "arithmetic mean roughness."