SuperAbrasives

Industrial SuperAbrasives are high-technology products based on extremely hard diamond or cubic bore nitride (CBN) abrasive grains. These are the two hardest materials in existence. They come in the form of grinding wheels or dressing tools and are used on materials that are too hard or too fragile to be worked with conventional agglomerates.

SuperAbrasives stand out from conventional abrasive grinding wheels by the fact that the diamond or CBN belts remain relatively thin – no more than 10 mm - whereas conventional products are made up of abrasive from the outer edge of the grinding wheel to the edge of the bore hole.

Diamond or bore nitride grains

Above all, grain abrasives are required to be hard. They must also have a high compression capacity, low thermal conductivity, resist wear, and be chemically inert. Grains in diamond or cubic bore nitride have these properties to an extreme degree.

The grains are incorporated into another material, the bond, which holds the grains. Saint-Gobain’s SuperAbrasives are agglomerated with resin, metal, vitrified or galvanic bonds. The R&D teams are constantly working to develop ever more efficient bonds.

Cubic bore nitride is not nearly as hard as diamond, but remains inert at high temperatures and resists the high speeds of the machines which work ferrous metals and super alloys. CBN vitrified grinding wheels are now commonly used in the aeronautics, automotive and bearing industries.

When are SuperAbrasives used?

SuperAbrasive tools are used to erode, cut, dress or polish materials such as glass, ceramics, hardened metals, cement and concrete, asphalt and natural stones. In certain cases, the finishing value, i.e. the surface states, are so low that they are measured in angstroms. There is also a range of "dressing" products for regenerating and profiling conventional agglomerated abrasive grinding wheels.

Industrial procedures are not, always, able to produce objects' definitive forms. In certain cases the product surfaces have also to be reworked. SuperAbrasives are chosen for these tasks when they provide the best solution in terms of cost or because they remain the only possible solution. Alternative technologies may be used: these are physical, chemical or thermal methods.