How to Choose Alumina Polishing Powder

When it comes to the precision machining of various materials, cutting, grinding and polishing process plays a key role. Talking about the polishing process, polishing powder is a key factor. The most common polishing powder includes alumina polishing powder and cerium oxide polishing powder, between them alumina polishing powder is especially widely used. According to different crystal phases, alumina polishing powder includes α-alumina powder, β-alumina powder and γ-alumina powder. The physical and chemical properties of aluminum oxide powders with different crystal phases are different. Among them, the crystal structure of  α- alumina powder is relatively stable, with high melting point, high hardness, high heat resistance and good insulation properties. So it is widely used in electronic materials filler, artificial medical materials, catalysts and so on.

In the production of polishing powder and polishing slurry, we also give priority to the α-crystal phase of aluminum oxide powder as our abrasive particles. Because the α-alumina powder, it not only has high hardness, strong wear resistance, and has good stability as well as heat and corrosion resistance.

So, how should we choose the right α-crystal phase of alumina powder to use in polishing?

First of all, we have to choose according to the physical and chemical characteristics of the material we are planning to polishing. Different materials have different hardness and toughness. Such as metal and sapphire materials as well as resin materials, these materials are very suitable for polishing with α-alumina powder.

Secondly, we need to consider the methods and equipment we choose to used in polishing. α-crystal phase alumina polishing powder is very suitable for manufacturing with polishing machines. The polishing process with α-alumina powder not only make the material has the gloss and flatness surface, but also gets a high grinding efficiency. So it achieved a balance between surface qualities and polishing efficiency.

So when we choose the polishing powder, we need to consider both the surface requirements of the material and the polishing efficiency. However, they are always paradoxical. According to the situation, we should control the particles morphologies and size of alumina powders. Therefore, basically we choose sub-micron and nano alumina powder in the precision machining process .

 In addition, when we choose alumina polishing powder, we should  consider the appearance of alumina particles too. The spherical and flake aluminum oxide powder are most common.

Because the aluminum oxide powder must be made into slurry during polishing process,  so we must fully consider its water solubility and dispersion when we develop the alumina polishing powder. At the same time, we also take self-sharpness of the powder and relationship between the primary and the secondary particle size into account.

Considering all of the above factors, we can finally provide our customers with a very suitable polishing alumina powder meeting both the polished surface and efficiency requirement.