Milling and Grinding Media Specifications

Help with Milling and Grinding Media specifications:

Type / Shape

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	Abrasive Grain / Grit		Abrasive grain or grit consists of smaller, sharp particles of hard materials, minerals, ceramics, carbides, or fused oxides. Most abrasive grains or grits have crushed irregular shapes, but a few abrasive grains are available with regular rod or platelet shapes such as precipitated alumina or extruded sol-gel abrasives.  Abrasive grains are typically sized or graded using a series of mesh sieves with specific percentage ranges for each screen depending on grit size.
	Balls / Beads / Rounded Pebbles		Media is a bead, ball, rounded pebble or spherical shape.
	Ballcones / Satellites		Ballcone or satellite media has a shape that is a combination of a ball and cone, or a ball combined donut or toroid. The term "satellite" is used because the media looks like a flying saucer, satellite, or top. Ceramic or carbide satellites have the appearance of a very short, stubby cylinder with two hemispheres on each end.
	Crushed / Irregular		Abrasive grit, nugget, or media has a crushed or irregular shape.  Typically, the irregular or crushed shapes are very angular with sharp edges for abrading, cutting, or grinding. Aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, nutshell, glass, and mineral abrasives or grit typically have a crushed shape.
	Cylinders / Cylindrical		Media has a cylinder, flat-ended pin or other cylindrical shape.
	Shaped Media		Shaped media includes coarse regular shapes for mass finishing, tumbling, blasting, and ball grinding applications. Finishing media types or shapes include steel shot, cut wire, triangles, pyramids, cones
	Shot - Cast		Shot can consist of cast round shapes. Cast shot usually consists of steel, stainless steel, cast iron, or other metals. A range of sizes or diameters may occur during the atomization or droplet formation process. Cast shot may not be perfectly round unless conditioned - SAE specification allow up to 5% of the shot to be elongated, 10% with voids, 10% with shrinkage, and 5% with cracks.
	Shot - Cut Wire		Shot can consist of round, cut wire or irregular shapes. Shot usually consists of steel, stainless steel, or other metals.
	Specialty / Other		Specialty, proprietary, patented or unlisted media shape.
	Search Logic:		All products with ANY of the selected attributes will be returned as matches. Leaving all boxes unchecked will not limit the search criteria for this question; products with all attribute options will be returned as matches.

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Media Size

	Media Dimension A / Diameter:		Media size specified by dimension A or diameter.
	Search Logic:		User may specify either, both, or neither of the "At Least" and "No More Than" values. Products returned as matches will meet all specified criteria.
	Media Dimension B:		Media size specified by dimension B.
	Search Logic:		User may specify either, both, or neither of the "At Least" and "No More Than" values. Products returned as matches will meet all specified criteria.

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Material / Composition

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	Aluminum Oxide		Aluminum oxide is the most common industrial mineral in use today. Fused aluminum oxide is produced synthetically by melting bauxite and an additive in an arc furnace to form a fused aluminum oxide ingots, which are later crushed and sized. Fused aluminum oxide is also produced synthetically by chemically purifying. The various types of fused aluminum oxides are distinguished by the levels of chemical impurities remaining in the fused mineral. Titanium and chromium oxides are typical additives. Other techniques to make an industrial abrasive start with treating bauxite ore with a sol gel process to create alumina that is sintered to produce with an extremely fine crystalline structure typical of the sol gel or Seeded Gel products available by Saint Gobain Abrasives. Fused aluminum oxide is available in several variations depending on composition and processing such as white (high purity), brown or regular (titanium oxide modified), and pink (chromium oxide additions). Titanium oxide additions can toughen the abrasive and enable heat-treating process, which changes brown aluminum oxide to a blue-colored grain as titania precipitates form. Aluminum oxide abrasives are also produced with chemical precursors and precipitation, calcination and/or sintering processes. Calcined or platelet alumina as used in fine grit or polishing applications. Sol-gel aluminum oxide is produced in using chemical ceramic technology, but this abrasive has very high performance and is usually referred to as Ceramic abrasive grain to distinguish the grain from lower-performing fused aluminum oxide. Aluminum oxide occurs naturally in the form of the mineral corundum, but the mineral is not used as a commercial abrasive except as a component of emery.
	Alumina-Zirconia		Alumina-zirconia abrasive grain consists of a fused alloy of aluminum oxide and zirconium oxide.  NorZon® is widely used variation proprietary to the Norton Company that consists of a fused and quenched eutectic mixture of aluminum oxide and zirconium oxide.  The resulting fine structure and higher hardness contributes to improved grinding performance on stainless steel, titanium, and other exotic metals.
	Boron Carbide		Boron carbide is a very hard abrasive, often used to make sticks for dressing other softer abrasives.
	Cast Iron		Abrasive grain or finishing media consisting of cast iron.
	Ceramic		Ceramic and inorganic abrasives and media include aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, zirconia, silicate, fused silica, boron carbide, synthetic diamond, CBN, tin oxide, tungsten carbide, and cerium oxide.  The ceramic abrasives are dense abrasives with outstanding grinding and finishing performance on a variety of workpiece materials. Hardness of ceramic and inorganic abrasives and media varies with specific composition. Diamond, boron carbide, and CBN are among the hardest materials and are used to grind and finish very hard ceramic and alloys.
	Chromium Oxide		Abrasive grain or finishing media consisting of fused chromia or chromium oxide, which has the small crystal structure as aluminum oxide with higher hardness.
	Glass		Abrasive grain or finishing media consisting of glass. Glass is a fused silica-based material solidified into an amorphous state. Glass fractures into shapes produce very sharp edges; however, the edges may not be as hard or durable compared to crystalline minerals or synthetic aluminum or silicon abrasives.
	Metal		Metal abrasives and media includes metal shots or balls, cut wire, crushed metal grit, or shaped media for blasting, ball burnishing, peening, mass finishing (vibratory or tumbling), deburring, bonded wheels, coated abrasives, or other applications. Steel, stainless steel, cast iron, aluminum and zinc are commonly used alloys.
	Mineral		Abrasive grain or finishing media consists of mineral-based material. Garnet, pumice, emery, croups, rouge, as pumice, carborundum, natural diamond, staurolite, novaculite, and some forms of silica or silicate minerals are examples of mineral abrasives and media.
	Plastic		Abrasive grain or finishing media consists of plastic material. Both thermoplastic and thermoset resins are used to produce plastic media and plastic grit.  Thermoset resins are more resistant to softener or heat damage.
	Porcelain		Porcelain materials are used for both useful industrial and ornamental applications. Traditional porcelain is made from a mixture of feldspar, clay (koalin), and flint. Porcelains can be aluminum silicate, magnesium silicate, or aluminum magnesium silicate-based - depending on the raw materials or minerals selected.
	Silicon Carbide		Silicon carbide (SiC) is a synthetic abrasive first developed in the late 1800s. SiC is harder than aluminum oxide, but more friable than fused aluminum oxide grains. Silicon carbide is typically applied to nonferrous applications (brass, aluminum, titanium).  The high solubility of carbon and silicon in iron would result in a reaction of silicon carbide with the iron base alloy and poor grinding performance.  Levels and types of impurities distinguish the green and black forms of silicon carbide. The sharp and easily fractured abrasive grain is used for abrading other non-metals such as the stone, glass, wood, and leather. SiC, like diamond, is susceptible to oxidation at higher temperatures.
	Silica / Silicate		Abrasive grain or finishing media based on silicon dioxide or silica. Fumed silica is often used in semiconductor or silicon-wafer polishing and planarization applications. A pure silica CMP compound does not impart poisons or impurities into the wafer fab process. Typically, fumed or amorphous silica abrasives are chosen because crystalline silica is considered carcinogenic. Silica and silicate materials include fused silica, quartz, koalin or clay based materials, cordierite, steatite, forsterite, sillimanite, zircon, porcelain, and fireclay.
	Stainless Steel		Stainless steel media is often in the form of stainless steel shot, stainless steel peening balls, or cut stainless steel wire. Crush stainless steel alloy grit is a less common form.
	Steel		Steel media is often in the form of steel shot, steel peening balls, or cut steel wire. Crush steel alloy grit is a less common form.
	Tungsten Carbide / Hard Metal		Crushed tungsten carbide grit is utilized in metal bonded products for abrasion of tough materials such as composites, fiberglass, reinforced plastics, rubber, and other specialized materials.
	Zircon		Abrasive grain or finishing media consisting of zircon or zirconium silicate material. Zircon is naturally occurring mineral and mineral sand.
	Zirconia		Abrasive grain or finishing media consisting of zirconium oxide material. Zirconia is a very tough and wear resistant ceramic.
	Specialty / Other		Other specialty, proprietary or patented abrasive grain, grit or abrasive material.
	Search Logic:		All products with ANY of the selected attributes will be returned as matches. Leaving all boxes unchecked will not limit the search criteria for this question; products with all attribute options will be returned as matches.
	Waterproof / Wet?		Waterproof abrasive products designed or suitable for wet finishing using a water or water-oil coolant mixture.
	Search Logic:		"Required" and "Must Not Have" criteria limit returned matches as specified. Products with optional attributes will be returned for either choice.

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