The term “diamond abrasive” refers to any abrasive material consisting of diamonds or diamond powder. An abrasive is a hard material that is used to wear away the surface of another material. Abrasives can be used to drill, cut, shape, sand, buff, hone, or sharpen objects and can be made from a wide variety of minerals or other materials. Diamond abrasives are the best due to their hardness and can be found in the form of bonded or coated abrasives.
How do Diamond Abrasives Work?
Diamond abrasives are very simplistic in design and function as they simply consist of an applicator that is coated with a diamond solution. The applicator is usually a pad or rod, while the diamond solution is made of diamond powder and some form of adhesive. Diamonds are so hard that even in powder form, they can wear away the surface of any other substance, including metal, glass, and rock. Diamond abrasives can be made in matrix form (a cylinder that contains the diamond powder on its interior walls) or in the form of a spinning wheel, with the latter being the most common type.
Applications
Diamond abrasives can be used to wear away any substance or material and are most often used to shape especially hard materials such as other minerals. For example, diamond abrasives are commonly used in jewelry production to cut mineral rocks down to an appropriate size, shape them to fit into a crown, and sharpen them to look newer and brighter. Diamond abrasives are also used in the form of diamond-coated saw blades, a type of rotating saw that can cut hard surfaces but cannot cut soft surfaces such as skin. These types of saws are especially useful in situations where blade-to-skin contact is almost a certainty, such as making jewelry or cutting casts.
Advantages
Diamond abrasives have several advantages that make them the preferred type. A diamond abrasive’s biggest advantage is the fact that it is harder than any other substance, a property that is essential in abrasion since the abrasive material should always be stronger than the material being worked on. This means that diamond abrasives can break down almost any material in the world and can do so quickly. Diamond abrasives are also safe to use as they cannot damage human skin.
Disadvantages
Although diamond abrasives can be advantageous, they also have several disadvantages. For example, diamond abrasives can be expensive due to price of mechanical parts and diamonds themselves. Also, diamond abrasives cannot cut through soft materials, although simple abrasives such as sandpaper or other minerals can.
