There are many different abrasive materials used in abrasive flow media. One of the most popular is aluminum oxide. Aluminum oxide’s versatility and strength make it suitable for many applications.
As the name suggests, aluminum oxide is a compound of aluminum and oxygen. Also known as alumina, aluminum oxide is a naturally occurring mineral and component of bauxite, the ore from which aluminum is extracted. Aluminum oxide is commonly used in the production of ceramics, refractories, and abrasive materials.
Aluminum oxide is often used as an abrasive material because of its hardness (9 on the Mohs scale), toughness, and durability. Aluminum oxide is insoluble in water and most organic solvents and has a high melting point and electrical resistivity. It’s capable of eroding away metals, ceramics, and other hard materials. Aluminum oxide is also chemically inert – it doesn’t react with the materials it’s deburring, smoothing, or polishing.
Another advantage of aluminum oxide is its lower costs. Because of its resistance to wear and tear, aluminum oxide-based abrasive flow media can often be reused for multiple jobs.
What is Abrasive Flow Media?
Abrasive flow media, also known as extrude hone media, is an abrasive-filled polymer compound specially formulated to remove material from the surfaces of a workpiece. Many types of abrasive materials are used to extrude home media. In addition to aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, boron carbide, and diamonds can be used as an abrasive in extrude hone media.
Abrasive Flow Machining
Abrasive flow media is used in a manufacturing finishing process called Abrasive Flow Machining (AFM). During the AFM process, an abrasive flow media is forced along and across the inner and outer surfaces of a workpiece. This action erodes away burrs and other surface imperfections while smoothing and polishing the workpiece. One of the big advantages of AFM is that the process smoothes and removes imperfections from hard-to-reach inner surfaces and parts with complex geometries, such as slots, breakthroughs, and drilled hole openings, more effectively than other finishing processes.
The rate at which the abrasive flow media removes unwanted material depends on a number of factors, including viscosity, media flow rate, abrasive concentration, particle size, viscosity, and the hardness of the workpiece material.
Abrasive Flow Media in Pittsburgh, PA
Deburring & Finishing Technologies is a company built to meet all your abrasive flow machining needs. We’ve been providing high-quality AFM equipment, services, and consumables to businesses in the Pittsburgh, PA area since 2009.
The success of an abrasive flow machining job depends upon selecting the right abrasive media, or extrude hone media used during the process. Deburring & Finishing Technologies offers over 50 types of extrude hone media suitable for a wide variety of applications. We also have the capability to tweak or re-engineer our abrasive flow media to fit your specific needs. Our abrasive flow media is available in 3 ½ gallon or 5-gallon containers.
Call us today to find out how we can help you with your deburring and finishing needs. You can contact Deburring & Finishing Technologies through our website or call us at (412) 849-1522 to learn more about our abrasive flow machining service, extrude hone media in Pittsburgh, PA, and get a quote.