Search Results for polishing and buffing compounds removal

This article describes the basic attributes of the most widely used metal surface cleaning processes to remove pigmented drawing compounds, unpigmented oil and grease, chips, cutting fluids, polishing and buffing compounds, rust and scale from steel parts, and residues and lapping compounds from magnetic particle and fluorescent penetrant inspection. The cleaning processes include emulsion cleaning, electrolytic alkaline cleaning, acid cleaning, solvent cleaning, vapor degreasing, alkaline cleaning, ultrasonic cleaning, and glass bead cleaning. The article provides guidelines for choosing an appropriate process for particular applications and discusses eight well-known methods for determining the degree of cleanliness of the work surface.

Metal surfaces must often be cleaned before subsequent operations to remove unwanted substances such as pigmented drawing compounds, unpigmented oil and grease, chips and cutting fluids, polishing and buffing compounds, rust and scale, and miscellaneous contaminants. The article describes common cleaning processes, including alkaline, electrolytic, solvent, emulsion, molten salt bath, ultrasonic and acid cleaning as well as pickling and abrasive blasting. It also explains how to select the appropriate process for a given soil type and surface composition.

Finishing refers to a wide variety of processes that generally involve material removal in one form or another to generate surfaces with specific geometries, tolerances, and functional or decorative characteristics. This article discusses four major finishing methods, namely, abrasive machining, electropolishing, mass finishing, and shot peening. In each case, it describes subtypes, process variations, and the associated equipment.

Mechanical finishes usually can be applied to aluminum using the same equipment used for other metals. This article describes the two types of grinding used in mechanical finishing: abrasive belt grinding and abrasive wheel grinding. It reviews the binders and fluid carriers used in buffing, and discusses satin finishing and barrel finishing. It also describes lapping and honing techniques that are of special interest in treating aluminum parts that have received hard anodic coatings. Honing recommendations for aluminum alloys are presented in a table.

Abrasive finishing is a method where a large number of multipoint or random cutting edges are coupled with abrasive grains as a bond or matrix material for effective removal of material at smaller chip sizes. This article provides a broad overview of the various categories of abrasive products and materials, abrasive finishing processes, and the mechanisms of delivering the abrasives to the grinding or machining zone. Abrasive finishing processes, such as grinding, honing, superfinishing, microgrinding, polishing, buffing, and lapping, are discussed. The article presents a brief discussion on abrasive jet machining and ultrasonic machining. It concludes with a discussion on the four categories of factors that affect the abrasive finishing or machining: machine tool, work material, wheel selection, and operational.

Zinc and zinc alloys require surface engineering prior to coating or use to improve adhesion and corrosion resistance. Die-cast zinc parts, in addition, must be trimmed and finished to remove flash and parting lines. This article covers zinc cleaning procedures as well as coating and finishing processes. It explains how to remove parting lines and presents several mechanical finishing methods, including surface polishing, brushing, controlled shot peening, and buffing. It also provides information on solvent cleaning, emulsion cleaning, aqueous detergent or alkaline cleaning), electrocleaning, acid dipping, and zinc conversion coating treatments.

The selection of surface treatments for copper and copper alloys is generally based on application requirements for appearance and corrosion resistance. This article describes cleaning, finishing, and coating processes for copper and copper alloys. These processes include pickling and bright dipping, abrasive blast cleaning, chemical and electrochemical cleaning, mass finishing, polishing and buffing, electroless plating, immersion plating, electroplating, passivation, coloring, and organic coatings.

Chemical brightening (bright dipping) and electrolytic brightening (electropolishing) are essentially selective-dissolution processes, in which the high points of a rough surface of aluminum are attacked more rapidly than the depressions, and the peaks and valleys are smoothed to produce a bright and beautiful finish. This article discusses the metallurgical factors, optical factors, and applications of the chemical and electrolytic brightening. It compares the chemical brightening and electrolytic brightening, and presents the advantages of the chemical and electrolytic brightening processes in terms of performance and economy. The article describes the phosphoric-nitric acid baths and phosphoric-sulfuric acid baths used for chemical brightening. Solution compositions and operating conditions for three commercial electropolishing processes, as well as for suitable post-treatments, are presented in a table.

Aluminum or aluminum alloy products have various types of finishes applied to their surfaces to enhance appearance or improve functional properties. This article discusses the procedures, considerations, and applications of various methods employed in the cleaning, finishing, and coating of aluminum. These include abrasive blast cleaning, barrel finishing, polishing, buffing, satin finishing, chemical cleaning, chemical brightening, electrolytic brightening, chemical etching, alkaline etching, acid etching, chemical conversion coating, electroplating, immersion plating, electroless plating, porcelain enameling, and shot peening.

This article discusses surface engineering of nonferrous metals including aluminum and aluminum alloys, copper and copper alloys, magnesium alloys, nickel and nickel alloys, titanium and titanium alloys, zirconium and hafnium, zinc alloys, and refractory metals and alloys. It describes various techniques to improve functional surface properties and enhance the appearance of product forms. The article discusses various cleaning and finishing techniques such as abrasive blast cleaning, polishing and buffing, barrel burnishing, chemical cleaning, pickling, etching and bright dipping, electrochemical cleaning, mechanical cleaning, and mass finishing. It also examines coating processes such as plating, anodizing, chemical conversion coating, and thermal spray, and concludes with a discussion on oxidation-resistant coatings for refractory metals.

Zirconium and hafnium surfaces require cleaning and finishing for reasons such as preparation for joining, heat treatment, plating, forming, and producing final surface finishes. This article provides information on various surface treatment processes, surface soil removal, blast cleaning, chemical descaling, pickling or etching, anodizing, autoclaving, polishing, buffing, vapor phase nitriding, and electroplating. Applications of these surface treatment processes are also reviewed.

Passivation; pickling, that is, acid descaling; electropolishing; and mechanical cleaning are important surface treatments for the successful performance of stainless steel used for piping, pressure vessels, tanks, and machined parts in a wide variety of applications. This article provides an overview of the various types of stainless steels and describes the commonly used cleaning methods, namely, alkaline cleaning, emulsion cleaning, solvent cleaning, vapor degreasing, ultrasonic cleaning, and acid cleaning. Finishing operations of stainless steels, such as grinding, polishing, and buffing, are reviewed. The article also explains the procedures of electrocleaning, electropolishing, electroplating, painting, surface blackening, coloring, terne coatings, and thermal spraying. It includes useful information on the surface modification of stainless steels, namely, ion implantation and laser surface processing. Surface hardening techniques, namely, nitriding, carburizing, boriding, and flame hardening, performed to improve the resistance of stainless steel alloys are also reviewed.

This article discusses the procedures used for pickling nickel and nickel alloys. Nickel alloys can be divided into four groups: high-nickel alloys, nickel-copper alloys, nickel-chromium alloys, and nickel-iron-chromium alloys. Alloys within each composition group that has similar surface conditions are pickled in the same solutions using the same procedures. The article discusses three different surface conditions for pickling these nickel alloys: bright annealed white surface requiring removal of tarnish by flash pickling; bright annealed oxidized surface requiring removal of a layer of reduced oxide, sometimes followed by a flash pickle to brighten; and black or dark-colored surface requiring removal of adherent oxide film or scale. The article also reviews specialized pickling operations of nickel alloys and various cleaning and finishing operations, including grinding, polishing, buffing, brushing, and blasting.

The necessary precursor to a proper and durable finish is the preparation of the active aluminum surface to receive the desired protective finish that will allow it to have a long and attractive service life. This article helps those who work with aluminum in the many varieties of applications of such products. It describes the two main categories of cleaning that can be used with most any metal, namely, mechanical cleaning and chemical cleaning. The article provides a discussion on the laboratory evaluation of cleaners, field testing of cleaners, and cleaner types and procedures. It also describes the special cleaning procedures for aluminum alloys, such as steam cleaning and rotary wire-brush cleaning. The article reviews the use of temporary coatings and the use of maintenance coatings on aluminum. It provides information on the handling and storage procedures of aluminum alloys and the cleaning of specific applications of aluminum.

This article provides an overview of surface contaminants that may affect the heat treatment processes and end-product quality. It presents information on the chemicals used to clean different surface contaminants of steels. The article discusses three types of cleaning methods, namely, mechanical, chemical, and electrochemical and their effectiveness and applicability. The mechanical cleaning methods include grinding, brushing, steam or flame jet cleaning, abrasive blasting, and tumbling. Solvent cleaning, emulsion cleaning, alkaline cleaning, acid cleaning, pickling, and descaling are chemical cleaning methods. The electrochemical cleaning methods include electropolishing, electrolytic alkaline cleaning, and electrolytic pickling. The article provides information on cleanliness measurement methods such as qualitative tests and quantitative tests to ensure product quality. Health hazards that may be associated with each cleaning method and the general control measures to be used for each hazard are tabulated.

This article describes post-processing techniques for machining, finishing, heat treating, and deburring used to remove additive manufacturing (AM) metallic workpieces from a base plate and subsequent techniques to enhance printed workpieces. The AM processes include powder bed fusion, binder jetting, and direct energy deposition. The discussion provides information on powder removal, powder recycling and conditioning, part removal, and part enhancement. The mechanism, applications, advantages, and limitations of mechanical, radiation, and chemical-finishing processes as well as the properties of the resulting material are also covered.

Emulsion cleaning is an industrial cleaning process that uses an organic solvent as the main active agent. This article provides information on the applications, concerns and limitations, and process parameters of emulsion cleaning. It describes the processing variables and equipment for three main stages of emulsion cleaning: immersion cleaning, secondary cleaning, and spray cleaning. In addition, the classifications, composition, and selection criteria are also discussed.

Surface treatments are applied to magnesium parts primarily to improve their appearance and corrosion resistance. Mechanical and chemical cleaning methods are used singly or in combination, depending on the specific application and product involved to ensure repetitive reliability. This article focuses on mechanical finishing methods, namely, barrel tumbling, polishing, buffing, vibratory finishing, fiber brushing, and shot blasting. It provides useful information on process control and difficulties with chemical and anodic treatments of magnesium alloys. The use and applications of plating and organic finishing of magnesium alloys are also reviewed. The article concludes with a description of health and safety precautions to be followed during the surface treatment process.

This article reviews cleaning and finishing operations that have proven to be effective on titanium, its alloys, and semi-fabricated titanium products. It explains how to remove scale, tarnish films, grease, and other soils and how to achieve required finishes and/or improve wear and oxidation resistance through the use of polishing, buffing, and wire brushing operations. The article also covers a wide range of surface modification and coating processes, including ion implantation, diffusion, chemical and physical vapor deposition, plating, anodizing, and chemical conversion coatings as well as sprayed and sol-gel coatings and laser and electron-beam treatments.

Ultrasonic cleaning involves the use of high-frequency sound waves that is above the upper range of human heating, or about 18 kHz, to remove a variety of contaminants from parts immersed in aqueous media. This article describes the process, design considerations and the equipment in ultrasonic cleaning. The components used in the generation of ultrasonic wave include piezoelectric and magnetostrictive transducers that are used in ultrasonic generators and tanks. The effects of solution type and its temperature on the effectiveness of ultrasonic cleaning are also discussed.