What Are Superabrasives?

Superabrasives make up a special category of bonded abrasives designed for grinding the hardest, most challenging work materials.

Because carbides, high speed steels, PCD, PCBN, ceramics and some other materials used to make cutting tools can be nearly as hard as conventional abrasives, the job of sharpening them falls to a special class of abrasives-diamond and the CBN, the superabrasives.

These materials offer extreme hardness, but they are more expensive than conventional abrasives (silicon carbide and aluminum oxide). Therefore, superabrasive grinding wheels have a different construction than conventional abrasive wheels. Where a conventional abrasive product is made up of abrasive all the way through, superabrasive wheels have abrasive on the cutting edge of the wheel that is bonded to a core material, which forms the shape of the wheel and contributes to the grinding action.

Superabrasive wheels are supplied in the same standard grit range as conventional wheels (typically 46 through 2,000 grit). Like other types of wheels, they can be made in a range of grades and concentrations (the amount of diamond in the bond) to fit the operation.

There are four types of bond used in superabrasive wheels. Resinoid bond wheels are exceptionally fast and cool cutting. They are well-suited to sharpening multi-tooth cutters and reamers, and for all precision grinding operations. Resin is the "workhorse" bond, most commonly used and most forgiving. Vitrified bond wheels combine fast cutting with a resistance to wear. They are often used in high-volume production operations. Metal bond wheels are used for grinding and cutting non-metallic materials, such as stone, reinforced plastics and semiconductor materials that cannot be machined by other cutting tools. Single-layer plated wheels are used when the operation requires both fast stock removal and the generation of a complex form.