Polishing in industry
The measure of a surface’s glossiness is its shine, also referred to as reflectivity.
Polishing carried out in vibro-abrasive machines is aimed at improving the smoothness of the surface and giving the processed surfaces a gloss.
The polishing process is the final stage of vibro-abrasive processing and takes longer than grinding or deburring process. In the grinding process, grinding chips (ceramic, resin) are used, while in the polishing process we use porcelain, zirconium, or steel shots. Depending on the type of chips used, the mechanisms of surface smoothing are different. Whith porcelain the unevenness is reduced by micro-cutting and lapping the surface. In the case of processing using metal chips (balls, satellites), the unevenness is rolled out. Both processes are supported by aqueous solutions of special compounds supporting the processing.
Polishing with the use of porcelain chips allows to obtain surface roughness measured by the roughness profile height parameter Ra up to 0.1 um.
