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Manufactured Abrasives Statistics and Information

By National Minerals Information Center

Insights and data

Pictured: alumina-zirconia abrasive

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Statistics and information on the worldwide supply of, demand for, and material flow of manufactured abrasives (metallic abrasives, fused aluminum oxide, aluminum-zirconium oxide, silicon carbide, and boron carbide).

Overview

Manufactured abrasives are made by heating or chemically treating metals or minerals to give them physical properties needed to abrade, clean, etch, grind, polish, scour, or otherwise remove material by rubbing action (as in a grinding wheel) or impact (pressure blasting). Their most important properties are hardness, toughness (rigidity), grain shape and size, character of fracture, and purity (uniformity). Additional considerations include thermal stability, bonding characteristics, cost, and availability. No single property is paramount for any use.

 

Publications

We are currently in the process of transitioning our datasets to the USGS ScienceBase platform to improve long-term accessibility, documentation, and version control. As part of that transition, we have temporarily paused public posting of our Minerals Yearbook (MYB) tables but will resume publication of them when the process is complete. Users subscribed to the automatic notification will be informed as each MYB becomes available. Thank you for your patience.

 

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