The Incredible Technology Behind Sandpaper

this episode is brought to you by brilliant in 2017 the largest quantity ever produced in human history of a consumable manufacturing material was recorded that year production of abrasives peaked at over 400 000 tons globally abrasives are characterized as any natural or manufactured substances that are used to abrade clean etch grind polish scour or otherwise remove solid material by a rubbing action or impact and while the concept of shaping or finishing a work piece through abrasion has been around for centuries one of the most commonly recognized form of an abrasive product is surprisingly a relatively recent development that has undergone a mostly unnoticed dramatic technological evolution sandpaper belongs to a class of abrasive products known as coated abrasives these products are composed of an abrasive element bonded to a backing material such as paper Fabrics rubber metals or resins and they generally possess some degree of flexibility they're also manufactured in a large variety of shapes to accommodate the wide range of both manual and power tooling that can be used with while modern sandpaper is a relatively recent product of the Industrial Revolution the basic use of sand as an abrasive has existed since the Stone Age though accounts of more developed abrasive based tools have appeared throughout recorded history the Greeks were known to have extracted quartz along with loose sand and Flint that was used to grind wood and metal substrates diamonds were also known to be mined and used as an abrasive in India around 1700 BC in the gemara king Salman is mentioned to have used a mysterious worm or an abrasive substance called the Shamir that had the power to cut through or disintegrate Stone iron and diamond and was used by artisans in place of cutting tools in the 13th century Chinese Craftsmen were known to bond sand crushed shells and sharp seeds onto parchment with natural gum other notable natural substances that have been used as abrasive tools include sharkskin celiacanth scales and boiled and dried rough horsetail plants the first modern form of coded abrasives were pioneered by John Oakley in the 1830s Oakley began his career working for a piano manufacturer and one of his tasks was to prepare sanded paper for use on wood and lacquer Coatings at the time the production of sandpaper was a manual process that required a five-year apprenticeship to master after mastering the process Oakley would go on to found John oaken's Sons Limited in 1833 with the goal of mechanizing the process and within a decade Oakley had not only developed new adhesive techniques and Manufacturing techniques that enabled the mass production of sandpaper but also created the first glass-based coated abrasives these products used small grains of ground of glass or Garnet called frit that are far more durable than sand and also retained a sharp edge structure as it wears down producing a longer lasting abrasive cutting action in 1825 a material that was a form of natural aluminum oxide called corundum was discovered in India corundum is extremely hard in that near the hardness of diamond it would prove to be an excellent abrasive quickly finding its way into grinding wheels bonded with gum resin by the 1870s vitrified grinding wheels would grow to become the most popular form of abrasive tooling as they were far superior to glue bonded products of the time fast forward to 1902 in five Northern Minnesota entrepreneurs would found the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing company with the initial goal to extract corundum from the shores of Lake Superior for the abrasives industry after raising capital and a short period of operation it was soon discovered that the corundum being mined was really a lower quality soft mineral known as an orthocyte plagued with financial challenges and quality issues with their mining operation the company decided to transition from a raw material supplier to product Manufacturing an initial attempt of producing their own grinding wheels was met with little success so the company now branded as 3M soon transitioned into the coded abrasives industry 3m's initial Venture into the market using natural abrasives was still plagued with quality issues and its reputation began to suffer however the company persisted and by 1914 3M would introduce their first successful product called 3mite 3amite was a cloth-based coded abrasive sometimes referred to as Emory cloth that relied on a recently developed new class of synthetic abrasives these abrasives were a direct result of the Advent of electric furnace technology that allowed a combination of Base materials to be fused by heating them to temperatures above 2000 degrees Celsius or 3 600 degrees Fahrenheit forming a new crystal structure with favorable abrasive properties unlike previous products 3M sourced the aluminum oxide based abrasive from the Norton abrasives company of warchester Massachusetts and it quickly became their first profitable product boosted by its profits from the wartime production of World War One and success against the patent challenges therium would go into established its first product Laboratories and establish itself as a company based around materials research and Innovation rapidly making its way to the Forefront of the coded abrasives industry in 1921 the company introduced the world's first water resistant coated abrasive called wet or dry wet or dry brought several new Innovations to the market including the first widespread use of silicon carbide as a coated abrasive silicon carbide also known as carburundum is a hard ceramic containing silken and carbon produced by baking silica sand with carbon at high temperatures within an electric furnace the resultant material is harder than aluminum oxide and approaches the hardness of diamond it is however less durable when an abrasive and a work material are brought into contact while in relative motion to each other the contact force applied is transmitted through the abrasive grain to the work material where it causes fragments to break away the effectiveness of this action is highly dependent on the shape of the abrasive grain with sharper edges producing more localized pressure at the interface points of both materials this process also simultaneously Smooths the abrasive grain as well as cause some of them to work loose from the adhesive the durability of a sandpaper is primarily determined by the relative hardness between the abrasive and the work material the adhesion properties and size of the abrasive grain or grit size and its ability to resist loading where ejected material is trapped between the grains 3m's wet or dry sandpaper took advantage of the faster cutting action of harder and sharper silicon carbide and when combined with the debris clearing flow Out of Water the sharpness of the sandpaper's surface could be maintained for longer wet sand paper was also primarily designed for small grain sizes or higher grit designations as the debris they produced could easily be flushed by water dry sandpaper in contrast requires more space between the abrasive grains to allow for debris clearing and tended to be designed towards larger grain sizes or lower grit designations wet sandpaper proved to be the perfect product for the now budding automobile industry as manufacturers could use the product with water to reduce dust and decrease friction producing smoother more refined Auto finishes it was also flexible and lightweight conforming easily to auto body surfaces for consistent finishes for the first half of the 20th century silicon carbide infused aluminum oxide-based abrasives were considered the highest performing materials within the industry however by the 1950s a new generation of high performance ceramic synthetic abrasives would be pioneered with the introduction of synthetic diamond and cubic bore nitride a diamond-like crystal made of boron and nitrogen these abrasives had Superior hardness dramatically elevating their performance especially in grinding applications however they were far too costly to be widely manufactured the next major material advancement would arrive in 1971 with the introduction of a new class of synthetic abrasives known as illuminate ceramic created by Norton abrasives the first of these products were created by the heated Fusion of zirconia with Illumina to create alumina zirconia one of the most fracture resistant alumina-based fused minerals alumina zirconia is an incredibly tough and hard abrasive that offers nearly twice the performance of aluminum oxide in both efficiency and durability it was also relatively easy to mass manufacture and quickly became a popular choice for metal working abrasive products in the early 1980s a revolutionary process that would dramatically improve abrasive performance would be introduced by 3M with the industry's first steps into nanotechnology this new class of ceramic nanoparticle abrasives are produced using a method called the cell gel process this process is a chemical method for the synthesis of various nanostructures and works especially well for metal oxide nanoparticles in this method a molecular precursor typically a metal alkoxide is dissolved in water or alcohol and converted to a gel by mild Heating and stirring via hydrolysis or alcohol assist this gel is then dried and baked off to drive off volatile matter producing a dense ceramic abrasive powder the saw gel method is extremely cost effective and due to the low reaction temperatures there is good control over the chemical composition and physical properties of the resultant products the process also produced a unique crystalline structure that made it less prone to fracturing during grinding when compared to Conventional fused grains 3M used the saw gel process to create an alumina based crushed ceramic abrasive grain from a synthesized aluminum monolithic gel this new abrasive became the foundation of their new cubatron product lining and it would soon gain widespread acceptance within the metal working industry both in coated product form and as bonded grinding tooling as new classes of abrasives were developed a technological split began to occur along the intended application of coated abrasive products dividing them between macro grit and microgrid macro grit coated abrasives are generally considered to be between grit designations p12 and P220 with grain sizes ranging from 1.8 millimeters down to 70 microns macro grip products are designed to remove material rapidly for the purposes of shape or Surface refining newer generations of higher performing synthetic abrasives and their Associated product designs tend to be focused towards increasing the macro grid performance through more efficient material removal and durability protect typically when applied to harder materials such as Steels microgrid products and contrast tend to use mostly finer traditional fused abrasives with silicon carbide being a popular wet dry option at the higher grits they range in designation from p240 all the way up to p5000 with grain sizes ranging from 60 microns down to just 5 microns microgrip products are targeted more towards surface refinishing and polishing they're designed to have more consistent and controllable operating properties focusing more on the surface finish they produce than material removal by the early 1990s the next Evolution and abrasive grain design would focus research on grain shape while an abrasive grain hardness is a big part of abrasive processes the shape and sharpness of abrasive green greatly affects the overall efficiency and quality in both synthetic and natural grain abrasives The Irregular particle shape of crushed grain creates inconsistent grinding and a plowing action on the work piece after some failed experimentation with Extrusion techniques therium initially looked to molding to mass-produce controlled grain shapes following extensive research and testing it was determined that a triangular grain structure was ideal for increasing grinding speed and the life of abrasives these first trials in shape manipulation initially produced a coarsely shaped repeating pyramid mineral that was initially introduced in 1992 as a low-grit metal working aluminum oxide based product called 3M trisact while trizact offered an improvement in male grinding speeds the molding process still produced a dull shape and it would take another decade of research to create truly optimally sharp mineral grains by the turn of the century 3M would introduce a new class of abrasives based on Precision green shape or PSG technology PSG technology is derived from a process called micro replication this technique was originally used by 3M for optical applications and it was eventually adopted by the abrasive systems division as a way to produce regularized abrasive surfaces in this process a casting film is used to roll a microstructure onto a wet uncured abrasive gel coating as this occurs a combination of UV light and heat is applied under the Roller's pressures curing the abrasive in its designed structure micro replication would first be used to further refine the trisact product line now permitting the production of even smaller grain structures that would take the product line into the realm of high surface finishing and polishing by 2011 the first use of micro Channel structures for debris clearing directly designed into the mineral would be introduced along with an even more elaborate grain structure specifically designed for a high quality polishing action micro replication-powered PSG technology would lead to 3M once again revolutionizing the coded abrasive industry with its introduction of the high performance kubertron 2 product line in 2009. kubatron 2 utilized a unique standing ceramic aluminum oxide triangular microstructure that not only had an extremely sharp tip that would cut through the work material instead of plowing through it but by Design would fracture to produce a new sharp edge as it wore effectively becoming a self-sharpening green cubertron 2 was exceptionally durable and because of this fracturing effect it dissipated heat from the work piece into the chips it also greatly minimized the risk of overheating and produced a higher quality more consistent grinding action cubertron 2 both in its coded form and harvested grain bonded form would quickly become a market-leading abrasive product and metalworking as it was effective even when used on tough Metals such as super Alloys tool Steels and high speed Steels and it was able to remove material at nearly twice the rate of traditional mineral products cubertron 2 abrasives were so effective at removing material that 3M struggled to effectively apply PSG technology without excessive loading to higher grit ranges that were commonly used on non-ferrous work materials such as wood it will take the expiration off a patent of Market competitor merca to open up a solution that would bring cubatron 2 to a wider audience for over 20 years merca had been the Pioneer in a novel coded abrasive medium known as a net abrasive targeted towards dust producing softer materials net abrasives are designed to be used with a vacuum pass-through backing pad along both dust and remove debris to be extracted through the net structure as it is removed in 2021 3M would introduced its extract line of products combining the unmatched material removal and durability of cubatron 2 with the dust and debris extraction capability of an open weaved netted abrasive that was capable of extracting almost 99 of the Dust produced once again creating an industry-leading abrasive product especially among Woodworkers PSG has been such a disruptive technology upon its introduction that the future of coded abrasives is entering a new realm of Nano manufacturing with highly engineered microstructures being envisioned for specific product applications taking sandpaper from one of the simplest known primitive tools to a modern Wonder of Material Science since the dawn of the industrial era abrasives have been such a crucial tool that each incremental Improvement in their overall performance over the past Century has easily scaled to billions in production cost savings by the modern era building an understanding of how abrasives perform and devising methods to improve them took a scientific approach of drawing and new ideas from advances in Material Science and with brilliant building the scientific mindset to solve design challenges has never been easier brilliant is my go-to tool for diving head first into learning A New Concept it's a website and app built off the principle of active problem solving because to truly learn something it takes more than just watching it you have to experience it Brilliance is constantly revamping their courses to offer even more interactivity and with their recently updated scientific thinking course you'll be able to examine the world around us Through The Eyes of scientific principles in this course you'll dispense with number crunching and Mathematics in search of something more useful physical Insight brilliant forges this scientific intuition using interactive exercises that allow you to discover the truth for yourself and experience the principles of science firsthand with brilliant you learn in depth and at your own pace it's not about memorizing or regurgitating facts you simply pick a course you're interested in and get started if you feel stuck or made a mistake an explanation is always available to help you through the learning process if you'd like to try out brilliant and start learning stem for free click the link in the description below or visit brilliant.org forward slash new mind and the first 200 of you will get 20 off an annual premium subscription

Channel: New Mind

Views: 637,715

Keywords: sandpaper, grit, cubitron, cubitron II, aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, zirconia, alumina, net abrasive, mirka, 3m, grinding wheels, polishing wheel, grinding disc, polisher, abrasives

Id: kTiIFzhxhq4

Length: 18min 9sec (1089 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 03 2022