Polishing and Buffing Pads

 

Polishing and buffing are the finishing techniques. The Polishing pads use abrasive belts, while the Buffing pads use cloth wheels with the applied compound. Polishing creates a brushed or lined finish, where buffing eliminates the lines and forms a bright luster finish. The method of buffing usually requires surface refinement polishing prior to buffing.

Polishing

Polishing by discs or abrasive belts is needed to level surfaces, remove pits, scratches, scale, and polish the surface enough so the cut buff can diminish the polishing lines. The first step of polishing should be done with the premium abrasive possible that effectively removes the welds, levels, or refines the imperfections of the surface. From that point on, the next step works to eliminate the first polishing scratch lines. Each better polishing stage should be cross-polished 90 degrees from the preceding polishing process. A 320 - 400 grit refining line is usually the coarsest surface preparation that a cut buff process can efficiently eliminate.

Buffing

Buffing is a spinning cloth wheel that is saturated with fine abrasive compounds, and it creates a bright-luster finish on metal and composites. Buff wheels are permeated with liquid rouge or a greaseless compound-based matrix of the specific fine abrasive called compound. The compound is pressured or sprayed into the rotating buffing wheel. The buff wheel acts as the carter of the compound, which eventually does the surface finishing.

Benefits of Polishing and Buffing

The polishing and buffing techniques offer myriad benefits like the following.

1. Buffing pads offer a more effective means of working polish into your surface to eliminate defects, greatly lessens the time you spend correcting your finish.
2. Pads for buffing and polishing hold polish much more evenly than a towel or other material would and are convenient to attach to a machine, permitting for a more even and consistent material removal.
3. China Polishing pads are better at holding the abrasives in polishes against the thing you’re polishing. This grants you to use less polish than you would with other material.
4. These Pads also offer a safety the barrier between your machine or hand and the surface you are working on.