Abrasives: CBN is not Diamond!

[widgitmaster]

Use diamond wheels for carbides, plastics and synthetics.
Use CBN for most steels, including tool steel and HSS.

CBN and Borazon are the same grit type. It is a man-made material.
Most diamonds used in manfacturing are man-made synthetic diamonds.

The basic abrasive types are aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, cubic boron nitride (cBN) and diamond. Aluminum oxide is the all-purpose abrasive with the widest variety of applications. Due to its inherent sharp shape, silicon carbide will be used to grind aluminum, magnesium and titanium alloys, as well as polymeric materials and rubber. Silicon carbide works well on hard materials; however, diamond is a better abrasive for grinding hard and ultra-hard materials like carbides, glass and ceramics. Diamond is carbon and has a chemical affinity for iron - resulting in heavy wheel wear and poor performance when machining ferrous materials. Diamond is always used on non-ferrous materials.
Cubic Boron Nitride (cBN) has been available since 1969. It is an extremely hard and abrasion-resistant material. It can be used to great advantage in the machining of ferrous materials. It is significantly harder than aluminum oxide, but moreover it is a conductor of heat. Aluminum oxide and silicon carbide - the conventional abrasives - are refractory materials and act as insulators. cBN and diamond - the two superabrasives - are conductors of heat. Diamond conducts heat by a factor of six times over that of copper. These superabrasives will always inherently grind cooler than the conventional abrasives.
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Metal Bonded Diamond Tools are "impregnated" with diamonds. This means that selected diamonds are mixed and sintered with specific metal alloys (such as iron, cobalt, nickel, bronze, and over 200 other components in various combinations). To achieve the best cutting performance possible on any materials such as sapphire, glass, granite, tile and etc. The metal bond surrounding the diamonds must wear away to continuously keep re-exposing the diamonds for the diamond tool to continue cutting. Diamond is the hardest material known to man kind. When used on tools, diamond grinds away material on micro (nano) level.
If the tool becomes overheated, the metal bond does not wear away, instead it "glazes over" the diamond. Hence coating or covering the diamond. The metal bond then becomes the cutting agent rather than the diamond. Generating more heat. The diamond tool will eventually chip the material or break it, due to excessive heat build up in material. Same heat may damage the diamond tool itself, by causing heat cracks in the diamond section.

[widgitmaster]

The diamond-like allotrope of boron nitride, known as cubic boron nitride, c-BN, ß-BN, or z-BN (after zinc blende crystalline structure), is widely used as an abrasive for industrial tools. Such usefulness is derived from the insolubility of boron nitride in iron, nickel and related alloys at high temperatures (unlike diamond). Like diamond, it has good thermal conductivity, caused by phonons; this is a difference against metals, where the mediators are electrons. In contact with oxygen at high temperatures, BN forms a passivation layer of boron oxide.

Commercial products are known eg. under names Borazon (by General Electric Corporation), and Elbor or Cubonite (by Russian vendors).

A crystal modification of boron nitride is w-BN, the superhard hexagonal phase of the wurzite structure. It occurs at high pressures.

Polycrystalline c-BN (PcBN) is used for wear applications. It is superior to diamond in applications requiring high temperatures in oxidizing atmosphere, and contact with iron and its alloys; c-BN abrasives are therefore used for machining steel, while diamond abrasives are preferred for aluminium alloys, ceramics, and stone.

Boron nitride binds well with metals, due to formation of interlayers of metal borides or nitrides. Materials with cubic boron nitride crystals are often used in the tool bits of cutting tools. Ceramic binders can be used as well.

For grinding applications, softer binders, eg. resin, porous ceramics, and soft metals, are used.

Sintered cubic boron nitride can be used in electronics as an electrically insulating heatsink material.

Cubic boron nitride is produced by treating hexagonal boron nitride at high pressure and temperature, much as synthetic diamond is produced from graphite. Direct conversion of hexagonal boron nitride to the cubic form occurs at pressures up to 18 GPa and temperatures between 1730-3230 °C; addition of small amount of boron oxide can lower the required pressure to 4-7 GPa and temperature to 1500 °C. Industrially, BN conversion using catalysts is used instead; the catalyst materials differ for different production methods, eg. lithium, potassium, or magnesium, their nitrides, their fluoronitrides, water with ammonium compounds, or hydrazine. Other industrial synthesis methods use crystal growth in temperature gradient, or explosive shock wave. The shock wave method is used to produce material called heterodiamond, a superhard compound of boron, carbon, and nitrogen.

Low-pressure deposition of thin films of cubic boron nitride is possible, but somewhat challenging. For selective etching of the deposited hexagonal phase during chemical vapor deposition, boron trifluoride is used (cf. use of atomic hydrogen for selective etching of graphite during deposition of diamond films). Ion beam deposition, Plasma Enhanced CVD, pulsed laser deposition, reactive sputtering, and other physical vapor deposition methods are used as well.

The band gap of cubic BN is 6.2 eV, similar to that of diamond. Like diamond, cubic boron nitride can be synthetized with semiconductor material properties. Beryllium can be used as a p-type semiconductor dopant, sulfur or silicon yield n-type semiconductor. The resulting diodes can be used up to 600 °C, and boron nitride LEDs can operate in ultraviolet region.

[widgitmaster]

ABRASIVES are either natural or artificial crystalline forms. Natural abrasives are Diamond, Corundum, Garnet, Emery, Quartz and other softer materials found in the earth. Artificial abrasives are manufactured, such as Diamond, Borazon™ CBN, Silicon Carbide, Aluminum Oxide, Boron Carbide and various aluminas, which are divided into two groups, fused and unfused. Fused abrasives are the result of tremendously high electric furnace temperatures, which produce hard crystals.
Unfused alumina abrasives are the result of lower temperatures and chemical additives. They do not have the hard crystalline structure of fused abrasives.


TYPES OF ABRASIVES

Note:
MOHS = Scale used to determine the hardness of minerals. A diamond is the hardest at 10 and talc the softest at 1.

DIAMOND: (Rating, MOHS 10) Both a natural and man-made synthetic abrasive. The hardest and sharpest abrasive known. Best suited for tungsten carbide and other very hard materials. Because it is so hard it should not be used on softer metals where embedding may be a factor. When a plate has been embedded with the Diamond abrasive, it cuts fast and produces fine finishes. In recent years, synthetic fine Diamond powders have been increasingly used in industrial applications.


CUBIC BORON NITRIDE (commonly known as Borazon™ CBN): A man-made synthetic abrasive that is almost as hard as Diamond on the MOHS scale. This abrasive material is well suited to ferrous metals in a lapping operation, as it will not carbonize as Diamond will when interacting with Fe (Iron). Borazon™ CBN is especially well suited for lapping 52100 bearing steel, cast iron, die steel, tool steel, stellite, super alloys and in some cases ceramic materials.


NORBIDE ABRASIVE: (Rating, MOHS 9.7) A fused abrasive with high grain strength. It has a hexagonal structure and is not easily friable (easily broken). Useful only for unusual or special lapping operations.


SILICON CARBIDE: (Rating, MOHS 9.5) A fused, hard crystalline abrasive. Fast cutting with good crystal breakdown when used to lap either high or low tensile strength material. It is well suited for rough lapping operations, forged or hardened gears, valves, tool room work and general maintenance where polish is not essential. With Silicon Carbide, all lapped material will have a frosty or gray finish.


ALUMINUM OXIDE: (Rating, MOHS 9, just under Silicon Carbide) A fused, crystalline abrasive. It has a very hard crystal structure that is slowly dulled and hard to fracture. It is best suited for use on high tensile strength materials, rough lapping operations, hardened hears, ball bearing grooves or lapping operations where pressure can be exerted to break down the crystals. It does not lend itself to fine finishes or precision lapping.


FUSED ALUMINA: (Rating, MOHS 9) Another form of Fused Alumina is the 38 white Aluminum Oxide abrasive, which is white in color with friable crystals. The pressure on (friable) crystals, while lapping, causes them to keep breaking down into still smaller particles, which perform the finishing operation, to produce the low r.m.s. finishes or polish. 38 while Aluminum Oxide is valuable for lapping stainless, chrome plate, beryllium and ferrite whose hardness range is below the 62-63 Rockwell C Scale.


CORUNDUM: (Rating, MOHS 9) A natural abrasive found in the earth, with a softer crystalline structure than Silicon Carbide or Aluminum Oxide. It breaks down readily and is important for lapping a great variety of medium-hard metals (Rockwell C 35-45). It gives a medium polish or reflective finish.


GARNET: (Rating, MOHS 8 to 9) A natural abrasive mined from the earth, with a blocky crystalline structure that does not readily embed itself in lapped parts. Its greatest asset is that it may be safely used for lapping cast iron gears, brass or bronze running seals and instrument gears where non-embedding qualities are desired. It has a medium polishing quality.


INFUSED ALUMINA (hydrate-calcined): Aluminas are produced in a wide variety-Gamma and Alpha, hydra and calcined. Hydreate Alumina is relatively soft and is used for polishing. Calcined Aluminas are produced by heat treatment and the degree of calcination determines the characteristics of the product. The terms soft, medium and hard relate to them as mild, medium and high degree of calcination.

The calcined types are recommended for the lapping and polishing of harder metals (Rockwell C 45-63). Their shape unlike the blocky crystals, are composed of flat or "platey" crystals with their thickness about one-sixth their diameter. Unfused aluminas allow more equal pressure to be distributed over a larger surface area than with fused because of their "playey" shape. The disc shaped particles work with a shaving action rather than the rolling and gouging action of ordinary abrasives and are not apt to scratch the work being lapped.


MICRO GRADED FLOURS-OPTICAL FINISHING FLOURS: A fused Aluminum Oxide type abrasive called flour because of its fine grit size, ranging from 500 to 1000. Originally produced to meet requirements of the glass and optical trade. It has a general blocky, crystalline structure that is effectively used when relatively soft materials are being lapped. The pressure exerted on the abrasive will cause it to enter the material and cut rather than fracture. For soft material pressure per inch need not be higher than two to five pounds. The softer the material the lower the pressure needed. Its greatest use is with special lapping machines where the abrasive is mixed with water, glycerin and various oils and is fed from an agitated tank onto the lapping area producing a matte finish. Because this material is hard and not friable enough for precision lapping, we have found it unsuitable for production into our paste type, ready mixed compounds.

MICRO GRADED FLOURS

No. Theoretical
Mesh Size Average Size
Microns
50 1000 5.0
95 900 12.5
125 800 12.5
145 700 14.5
175 600 17.5
200 500 20.0
225 400 22.5
250 320 25.0
*Courtesy of Norton Company, Worcester, Mass.



LINDE POWDERS: These powders represent alumina purity of 99.98%. They are used for polishing purposes on hard materials (Rockwell C 45-65) and for extreme finishing operations. Excellent for steel balls or ball bearings, Linde powders produce a very high polish or luster. They can also be used with Pitch laps for producing mirror finishes.


OTHER ABRASIVE MATERIALS:
• Red Rouge (Ferric Oxide) , jeweler's rouge for polishing soft materials
• Green Rouge (Chromium Oxide), for polishing hard material such as chrome plate, stainless, etc.
• Natural Emery is one of the oldest abrasives but due to its impurities it has little place in modern lapping
• Cerium Oxide, best suited for glass polishing
• Titanium Oxide and a host of other abrasive materials have usage for unusual or special applications only



ABRASIVE GRIT - SIZES 8 TO 240: These are called "screened" sizes. The U.S. Department of Commerce has specifications for each screen number.


ABRASIVE GRIT - SIZES 280 AND FINER: There are no standardizations for the "subsieve" or finer grit numbers from 280 and finer. Considerable variation exists in both nomenclature and sizing practice between producers. Grit sizes differ from one producer to another though they try to remain competitive. Personal testing is the only sure way to determine if a particular grit size meets your needs.

AVERAGE PARTICLE SIZE OF ABRASIVE GRAIN

Size Inches Average Microns
100 .0068 173
120 .0056 142
150 .0048 122
180 .0034 86
220 .0026 66
240 .00248 63
280 .00175 44
320 .00128 32
400 .00090 23
500 .00065 16
600 .00033 8
900 .00024 6
1000 5
1200 _ 3



TABLE

One light band = 11.6 millionths
One micron = .001 millimeter
One micron = .000039 inches
One inch = 25 400 microns
Microinch* = One millionth of an inch 0.000001 inch
*The term microinch should be qualified by adding r.m.s. which signifies the root-mean square.

[mxtras]

Nice to have all this in one spot!

Nice compilation, Mr. Widgy.

Scott

[widgitmaster]

BORAZON (from Wikipedia)

Borazon is the hardest substance that is artificially produced. Borazon is a crystal created by heating equal quantities of boron and nitrogen at temperatures greater than 1800 °C (3300 °F) at 7 GPa (1 million lbf/in²). Borazon is the only substance that can scratch a diamond. A diamond too can scratch Borazon.

[sonnenenergie]

Nice post... interesting !