Dynabrade Blog

Abrasives: Types and Overview

Hook-face, film, PSA, bonded, hook and loop, flap discs – Whatever term you may use, it all refers to the use of an abrasive. The types of materials that abrasives are made of can widely vary too. Dynabrade carries all the abrasives to work on our tools, but how do you know what abrasive to choose for your application?

What Materials Are Commonly Used In Abrasives?

• Silicon Carbide
  This material can be used for sanding materials such as wood, plastic, composites, glass, sanding sealers, primers, and paint. A resin bond system improves the grain adhesion and extends life while the clog free coating helps to minimize build-up of sanding dust on the abrasive surface. Silicon carbide was the first man-made abrasive and is the hardest and sharpest of manufactured abrasives. The grain enables fast stock removal and a cool cutting action on cast iron, non-ferrous metals, glass, rubber, plastic, and stone. It is often used for final finishing on wood and creates the bright-blue finish on stainless steel.
• Aluminum Oxide
  This material runs the gamut from very tough, block shaped, and durable to hard, friable, and very sharp. This abrasive can penetrate hard materials at very high speeds for rapid stock removal. Aluminum oxide is also known for its ability to resist wear, generate a cool cutting action, provide long life, and a freeness of cut on the widest range of materials.
• Alumina Zirconia
  An alloyed version of aluminum oxide that fuses zirconia with aluminum oxide to form a unique, self-sharpening, crystalline structure that is approximately 10% harder than aluminum oxide. Rugged stock removal operations can expect a longer life out of this material.
• Zirconia Alumina
  This super-tough, man-made abrasive was first introduced in the 1970s. It is tougher and sharper than aluminum oxide and retains its sharpness for a longer period. The microcrystalline structure ensures a more controlled breakdown, becoming self-sharpening and resulting in a free, cool cut for high stock removal applications.
• Ceramic and Premium Ceramic
  This abrasive technology was first introduced in the 1980s. Chemical variations and special forming techniques continue to advance the use of this abrasive technology into more and more applications and material types. The sub-micron structure of ceramic alumina allows each grain to continually expose sharp cutting points, resulting in cooler cutting action and an extended life. This is the first choice for use on ferrous/non-ferrous metals, carbon steel, and exotic alloys.

Besides the materials that are used to create the abrasive, there are ways to even further describe the type of material you are using.

• Coated Abrasive
  Any abrasive product where a cloth, paper, film, fiber, or mesh substrate is coated with single or multiple layers of adhesives and abrasives. An adhesive bond or bond system is required to secure the abrasive grain to a backing material. The majority of coated abrasives are made with a two-stage bonding process, while some unique polishing and tapping products are coated in one-stage. The three basic bonding agents commonly used are glue, urea resin, and phenolic resin.
• Open Coat or Closed Coat
  Coated abrasives made in an "open coat" have approximately 50% to 75% of the surface covered by abrasive grain and evenly spaced voids between the particles. The voids provide a chip clearance and reduces the effect of loading caused by wood dust or metal particles. Coated abrasives made with a "closed" coating have virtually the entire surface of the backing material covered with abrasive grain, with no voids between the particles. Closed coat is the most common coating in most cutting products. Closed coat produces the highest degree of stock removal and longest product life.
• Bonded Abrasives
  This is a general term used to describe grinding wheels and cutting wheels produced by compressing a blend of abrasive grains, an adhesive binder, and various grinding aids and reinforcing fabric under heat and pressure.
• Carbide Burrs
  Carbide rotary burrs are used for cutting, shaping, grinding, and for the removal of sharp edges, burrs, and excess materials. Tungsten carbide burrs are commonly used on a variety of materials including steel, stainless steel, aluminum, cast iron, exotic alloys, precious metals, ceramics, composites, non-ferrous metals, and wood. Our Dynabrade pencil grinders and die grinders are mainly used with carbide burrs across many industries, including welding.

Besides the above mentioned commonly used types of abrasives, we also carry power brushes (wire brushes), non-woven abrasive discs, flap brushes, eyelet stars, sanding stars, deburring wheels, multi-finishing wheels, metal finishing wheels and other specialty abrasives.

Since our tool catalog covers many industries and applications, we also offer a variety of pads in addition to our abrasive offering. Check out our abrasive catalog below.

View Abrasive Catalog Contact Us