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The stainless steel polishing process contains between three and seven distinct stages to reach an ideal finish. Many of these stages involve using mechanical abrasive media—such as Alumina, Zirconia and Ceramics in the process of surface conditioning.
The requested finishing standard impacts the number of stages involved in the polishing process. Operators can use abrasives ranging in grit strength from 50-3,000 to gradually increase the smoothness of the finish without damaging the product. The No. 8 finish—one of the highest finishes that provides a mirror-like smoothness—requires abrasive alumina powder.
Polishing Processes
While almost all polishing processes involve mechanical abrasion, there are a variety of different processes and tools that work on different types and shapes of metal. The most common polishing processes include:
Belt Sanding
Belt sanding tools—or belt grinders—mechanically rotate a belt of gritted material to abrade the surface of stainless steel. The belts can have different levels of grit, including rough or low grit levels for the beginning stages of the process and fine or high grit levels for ending processes. The belts also come in different widths to handle different workpiece sizes.
Edge Polishing
When the edges of stainless steel pieces need to be polished, sufficient pressure needs to be applied to thoroughly polish edges in order to mitigate corrosion and contamination risks at high-contact points.
Face Polishing
Polishing belts of zirconia / ceramic abrade polish stainless steel surfaces. These machines use different polishing grits that an operator may choose from.
Grinding
Grinding is one of the most common metal polishing processes. Various types of grinding machines can finish different shapes of metal ranging from plates to pipes. While grinding is typically considered to be a rougher, separate category of metal finishing than polishing, it can erase surface-level imperfections and is often used during the beginning stages of polishing.
