You may see 3M products everywhere around you, such as anti-smog masks, safety reflective stickers, body stickers, etc. Today, we will open a new field for you – flexlble flap disc
The flexlble flap discs are commonplace for many grinders and polishers. To put it bluntly, flap disc is a very general product, which is to stick several sheets of sandpaper around the edge of the disc to form a circle. At the same time, it has good grinding ability and can obtain a relatively delicate surface effect, which is very similar to the steel paper fiber grinding sheet of the same particle size.
In the eyes of most workers, choosing a flexlble flap disc only needs to pay attention to its mesh and size, and there is another important point: the price. In many factories, due to cost pressure, the general starting point for choosing flap discs is to choose cheap ones, not the right ones. In fact, choosing the right flap disc can not only effectively improve production efficiency, but also effectively prolong its life, thereby improving its cost performance! So, how to choose the right louver plate?
Here are a few tips for choosing a flexlble flap disc:
The shape of the flexlble flap disc
Flexlble flap disc come in two shapes: curved and flat. Flat flap discs have a flat sanding surface, while curved flap discs have an upward angled sanding surface.
So what’s the difference between the two?
There are advantages and disadvantages between the two. From the structural point of view, the curved flap disc is based on its designed grinding angle, all the blades can touch the workpiece, so the ore falls, the cutting rate and the surface effect are relatively consistent.
The flat flap disc has a relatively flat ground surface design, so it can often produce higher initial cutting efficiency, but the surface effect is rougher. With the wear of the disc, the shape of the polished surface will gradually become similar to the structure of the curved flap disc. At this time, the flat flap disc shows a polishing effect similar to that of the curved flap disc.
There are flexlble flap discs provided by some manufacturers, which have more grinding blades per unit area. They usually call it “high density”, “long life”, etc., and say that these flap discs have a longer life. Of course, due to the increase in the number of blades, the price will also be more expensive.
Let’s analyze the difference in the number of leaves and the different feelings it brings to you:
First of all, it must be confirmed that the cutting efficiency of this “high-density” flap disc is significantly improved due to the increase in blades, but after polishing, the surface effect may become worse than before. The reason is that in a fixed unit volume, you need to insert more blades, so the insertion angle of the blades will be higher. Sandpaper blades with a high angle will produce rougher sand marks than those with a low angle. If you don’t care about the effect of polishing the surface, then this “high density” flap disc will be a good choice for you.
So the question is, the more blades the flap disc has, the longer its lifespan will be? In some cases, this is true, but the most important factor determining the life of a flap disc is something else.
Lifespan of flexlble flap disc
When we discuss the life of flexlble flap discs, we must first assume that the objects we are comparing are flap discs of the same granularity. You should know that there are three failure modes of the abrasive belt: clogging, dull ore, and sand loss. In fact, the situation with flap discs is similar.
The difference between the flexlble flap disc and the abrasive belt is that if the sandpaper blade on the top does not fall off after the ore has been blunted and has no cutting force, then the effective ore part of the new sandpaper below, or the ore with abrasive force, It cannot be exposed, and as a result, the flap disc is “blocked”.
Then under what circumstances can the leaves fall off in an orderly and smooth manner? This has to mention the back base material of the sandpaper blade.
In this market, the backings used for flap disc sandpaper blades generally fall into the following categories: ordinary cotton materials, blended materials of polyester and cotton, and pure polyester materials. The hardness of these three materials increases sequentially.
Hardness: ordinary cotton material < mixed material of polyester and cotton < pure polyester material
As mentioned earlier, to make the flexlble flap disc more durable, the key to success is whether it can be worn simultaneously during the polishing process. If you’re at lower pressures but using a louvered disc with a very durable backing:
For example: polyester backing, the backing of the blade is not easy to wear, and after the ore is blunted under normal use, it will be covered with metal debris and eventually fail.
Therefore, workers should choose the correct flexlble flap disc blade back base material according to the hardness of the material to be polished, the grinding pressure, and the amount of grinding, and make full use of all the blades of the flexlble flap disc to obtain a longer life.
How to choose flexlble flap disc reasonably?
Every flexlble flap disc has its own positioning, we cannot simply evaluate every flap disc by good or bad. We can only say whether it is suitable or not, and whether it is suitable or not depends on how you use it and under what circumstances you use it.
① The commonly encountered grinding applications can be sorted according to the amount of grinding from the largest to the least:
Coarse weld seam removal > General weld seam, slag removal > Beveled edges > Flat thinning, dimensioning > Reconciliation of lines > Removal of surface oxides > Deburring > Coating removal
For the removal of rough welds, in fact, a better way is to use steel paper fiber grinding sheets.
② According to the hardness of ore sand, from high to low, the order is:
3M Coolcut II Ceramic Alumina > Zirconia Corundum > Silicon Carbide > Alumina (Corundum)
The hardest ore known to man is diamond, but since industrial synthetic diamonds are extremely expensive (not to mention natural diamonds), if used in products such as louver discs, the cost performance is extremely low. As a result, flexlble flap disc that use diamond as mineral sand are extremely rare.
In addition, silicon carbide ore is more expensive than alumina, but its durability is not as high as that of alumina, resulting in lower cost performance, so it is less used in louvers.
③ According to the hardness and durability of the backing material of the sandpaper, from high to low, the order is:
Superhard Polyester Materials > General Polyester Materials > Polyester and Cotton Hybrid Materials > Ordinary Cotton Materials > Paper Base Materials
Zhuhai Xinhongrui Abrasives is a professional China 3m trizact discs manufacturer. We purchase raw materials in large quantities from 3m company to meet customers’ customized size requirements. Our warehouse area is hundreds of square meters, which are full of various 3m products. We believe we have an absolute advantage in inventory.
