With time, it is expected that SG, TG/TG2, Cubitron, and other emerging chemical precipitation/sin — tering processes will increasingly dominate the conventional abrasive market. The production of electrofused product is likely to shift more and more from traditional manufacturing sites with good availability of electricity, such as around the Great Lakes of the United States and Norway, to lower cost, growing economies such as China and Brazil.
3.4 diamond abrasives
3.4.1 Natural and Synthetic Diamonds
Diamond holds a unique place in the grinding industry. Being the hardest material known it is not only the abrasive choice for grinding the hardest, most difficult materials, but also it is the only material that can truly address all abrasive wheels effectively. Diamond is the only wheel abrasive that is still obtained from natural sources. Although synthetic diamond dominates in wheel manufacture, natural diamond is preferred for dressing tools and form rolls. Diamond materials are also used increasingly as wear surfaces for applications such as end stops and work-rest blades on grinding machines. In these types of applications, diamond can give 20 to 50 times the life of tungsten carbide.
Loose grain appearance
Wheel structural appearance
FIGURE 5.6 Norton TG2 abrasive grain and Altos Wheel Structure. (From Norton 1999a, 1999b. With permission.)