Black silicon carbide (Carborundum) is an effective abrasive to use in your sandblast cabinet, breaking down into smaller grits to expose new, sharp edges.
This wide bandgap semiconductor occurs naturally as the rare gemstone moissanite and is manufactured industrially as powder and crystal form for electronic applications like light emitting diodes and crystal radio detectors.
Abrasive Paper
Silicon carbide abrasive material is widely utilized for surface preparation, finishing, and material removal applications. Composed of abrasive grains securely adhered to backing material like paper cloth or fiber backings; each grit size indicates the coarseness or fineness of its content; it has become particularly popular for woodworking and metal fabrication but has found widespread application elsewhere where precise material removal is essential.
Sandpaper, commonly referred to as emery paper or glasspaper, can be used both dry and wet for various tasks, including rough-sanding metal to remove paint or rust; smoothing drywall; sanding between coats when painting; rough-sanding concrete floors and smoothing them out after installation of carpet; rough-sanding an area prior to painting and smoothing it all out after. Many abrasive products feature waterproof backings which enable wet use which helps prevent scratches on surfaces as well as airborne dust emissions from dust particles being released when being wet used wet.
The global abrasive paper market is projected to experience significant expansion over the coming years due to growing demand from metal fabrication and automotive refinishing sectors. Furthermore, an emphasis on environmental-friendly practices has resulted in eco-friendly abrasives being developed. Key players in the abrasive paper industry include 3M, Bosch Limited, Deerfos, Hermes Schleifmittel GmbH Klingspor AG Mirka Ltd MISUMI Corporation Saint Gobain as key industry players.
Abrasive Grit
Silicon carbide abrasive material is an extremely hard and durable abrasive, used in numerous applications. You’ll often find it in bonded or coated abrasives as well as rock tumbler media (sometimes referred to as black grit). Rock tumbler media utilizes it extensively as part of modern lapidary due to its affordability and resilience; moreover it is widely utilized during other machining processes like honing, grinding and water-jet cutting; additionally it is even found inside many modern firearms as it stands up well against high temperatures and wear-and-tear damage.
Abrasive grit is typically made by crushing or grinding minerals with high silicon dioxide (SiO2) content — often exceeding 99.7% – such as natural silica sand or quartz with angular grains that feature rough edges designed to cut or grind materials through direct contact. After this stage, carbon sources such as coal, petroleum coke or charcoal are added through a sintering process until green or black abrasive grit emerges with angular grains with rough edges suitable for direct cutting/grinding.
This versatile abrasive is available in coarse grits designed to remove rust or deburr metal, and in finer grits designed for polishing or refinishing wood. Sandpaper often incorporates this abrasive; coating or “stearing” it adds dry lubricants that help prevent clogging while increasing useful life; rolls or sheets may then be packaged depending on its purpose.
Abrasive Powder
Silicon Carbide (SiC) is a hard chemical compound composed of both silicon and carbon atoms, known for its wide bandgap semiconductor properties and high melting point, making it useful in various industrial applications. Since 1893 it has been mass-produced as an abrasive while simultaneously being utilized as raw material for producing refractories, ceramics, and metallurgy materials.
Polymorphous SiC forms — of which over 250 are known — demonstrate its structural versatility. Each variant exhibits differences in its two-dimensional crystal structure and dimensional arrangement, leading to different physical properties for each form. Alpha SiC (a-SiC) is most frequently encountered and forms at temperatures above 1,700 degC; beta (b-SiC) forms at lower temperatures with zinc blende crystal structures similar to Wurtzite crystal structures.
Black silicon carbide powder can be used as an abrasive. Its primary use is in processing metals and non-ferrous materials such as glass, ceramics, stone and composites. Black silicon carbide’s excellent wear resistance, toughness and stability combined with its thermal conductivity and low coefficient of expansion makes it a useful material choice.
Washington Mills offers CARBOREX(r) products in various chemistries and sizes to serve a range of applications, such as blast cleaning, coated abrasives, ceramics grinding wheels and refractory materials. Reach out today so we can find you the optimal solution to meet your specific requirements.
Tumbling Grit
Tumbling grit is a man-made abrasive used in rock tumblers to shape, smooth and polish rocks. As one of the hardest known materials, tumbling grit breaks apart into sharp points and edges with each particle breaking apart into smaller angular-shaped particles with sharp points; yet is inexpensive and readily available in multiple sizes – usually sold ungraded so as to cover a wide range of particle sizes; graded varieties offer more uniform particle sizes but at greater expense.
For most tumbling applications, a coarse (60/90 grit) silicon carbide abrasive should be used. Simply mix this material with any rough rocks you wish to tumble and add them all at the same time into either a rotary or vibratory rock tumbler barrel – overfilling is not advised as this could damage or destroy the machine altogether.
Most tumblers employ a three step process in their tumblers: coarse, medium and fine grits. The coarse grit shapes the rocks roughly while medium grit removes scratches left by coarse grits to produce a smooth surface; finally fine grits smoothes further to prepare the stones for polishing.
Polishing stones typically takes place using aluminum oxide polish for rotary tumblers and #61 Rapid Polish for vibratory tumblers, though other options such as tin oxide, feldspar, and cerium oxide polishes may also be utilized. Tin oxide penny tumblers may produce their desired copper hue, though in order to protect any valuable old coins that might have become compromised during their journey they should be separated from any clad pennies to avoid damaging their copper colors too much during processing.
Swedish 
English