Abrasives and polishing agents for materialography – an overview

After the cutting process and sample mounting, the material removal steps as part of the materialographic preparation process begin. In addition to the actual grinding and polishing machines, a great number of abrasives and polishing agents is required during these steps. Abrasives and polishing agents differ in the material removal they achieve. While abrasives are used in order to achieve a targeted and efficient material removal from the samples, the polishing agents serve to smoothen the sample surface and to prepare the sample for the microstructural evaluation. Abrasives and polishing agents also differ in the amount of used additives and auxiliary materials. In general, the grinding process is based on a continuous material removal using abrasives with ever finer grits in the form of diamond, silicon carbide, SiC or cubic boron nitride (CBN). In this context, no other auxiliary materials are used. The removed material is washed away with water and the grinding process is completed when the sample is smooth enough to be polished. For the subsequent polishing step, polishing cloths, different pastes, suspensions and lubricants are used. They ensure considerably less material removal than during grinding.

SCAN-DIA Grinding and Polishing Material

The company SCAN-DIA offers a wide variety of grinding and polishing materials for materialography. During the manufacture and further development of its grinding and polishing materials, SCAN-DIA attaches great importance to quality and economical work processes. All grinding and polishing materials are matched to each other as well as to the complete range of SCAN-DIA Machines and Consumables. After acquisition, grinding and polishing machines are in operation for years. However, grinding and polishing materials must be, depending on the sample throughput, newly purchased or purchased in specific intervals. Long service lives and the smallest possible number of work steps can thus contribute to cost savings. The more precise the application of grinding and polishing materials for the respective preparation step, the lower the regular costs. SCAN-DIA Grinding and Polishing Materials as well as the available auxiliary materials allow precise and economical grinding processes with a low number of work steps.