Akasel Polishing Consumables (Polishing Cloth)

Polishing has to remove the last deformation introduced during grinding, and to provide a highly reflective finish so the samples can be examined on the microscope.

Soft cloths usually provide the best surface finish but tend to round the edges of the sample and create relief between phases of different hardness.

Hard cloths are good for planeness and edge retention, but tend to leave slight scratches on the surface.

Therefore, a compromise has to be found to create the best possible surface finish with the best planeness and least edge rounding, in the shortest possible time.

Our variety of polishing cloths provides, together with the correct abrasives, a solution to every polishing challenge. The cloths are available in two different versions; magnetic and self-adhesive.

Many laboratories are using a magnetic support disc for an easy exchange of grinding and polishing discs. In this case the polishing cloths on a steel base are the obvious choice. However, the self-adhesive cloths can also be used on magnetic support discs when they are applied on the Aka-Rhaco support disc. This will save money and reduce metallic waste.

Polishing Cloths

The polishing cloths contain a thick polymer barrier that keeps both abrasive and lubricant at the surface of the cloth to perform the most efficient polishing action.

Plaran and Paran-S are relatively hard cloths used for fine-grinding or prepolishing with 15 μm, 9 μm, 6 μm, 3 μm or 1 µm diamonds.

Silk, Daran, Ramda, Moran-U, Moran and Plural are gradually softer cloths for polishing with 9 – 0.25 μm diamonds.

Napal is used for final polishing with diamond abrasives of 1 μm and finer or for final oxide polishing.

Chemal is used for oxide polishing and especially suited for chemicalmechanical polishing.

The self-adhesive polishing cloths are equipped with a newly developed adhesive with low tack and a unique tab that assures easy placing and removal of the cloths. Unique is also the batch code printed directly onto the cloth back.

Without removing the liner from the back of the cloths, they can be used directly on Aka-Rhaco and thus on magnetic support discs. See section Magnetic Adaptation.

All magnetic polishing cloths are based on the cloths above, laminated on a steel disc. These steel discs are equipped with 3 tabs for easy removal from the magnetic support disc.