What Is Waterproof Sandpaper?
Waterproof sandpaper is a special type of paper used to give painted surfaces a smooth, beautiful finish.
It removes surface dirt and rust, blurs scratches, and improves adhesion while wetting the surface with water. It also has a matte finish, making the finish more aesthetic and functional.
Abrasive paper is available in a variety of grit sizes ranging from 120 to 3,000. When selecting the appropriate abrasive paper, it is important to consider the conditions of the surface to be polished, abrasiveness, durability, strength, and ease of use. Waterproof sandpaper provides an excellent finish. Painted surfaces will have a beautiful and functional finish and can be used for a variety of applications.
Uses of Waterproof Sandpaper
Waterproof sandpaper is first utilized for metal polishing. It is often used to finish watch cases and metal products, and is useful in situations where a beautiful finish is required. Another feature of this product is that it is also used for polishing vehicle painted surfaces, repairing scratches, and polishing stainless steel for shell mufflers.
It is also used in the woodworking field. It plays an important role as an indispensable tool for fabric polishing and instrument manufacturing. Furthermore, they are also used for sharpening surfacers before painting and polishing painted surfaces.
It is also useful for removing stains from resin products and can be used to rough polish metal substrates and eliminate unevenness in products. It is also suitable for pre-treatment of mirror finish and paint polishing of fuel tanks.
In addition, waterproof sandpaper may also be used to remove hand stains from ceramics and to polish stains from stainless steel products. It is also useful for cleaning washroom areas and toilets.
Principle of Waterproof Sandpaper
Waterproof sandpaper differs from regular abrasive paper in that it can be wetted with water. Waterproof sandpaper is based on a special paper or cloth with abrasive particles evenly distributed at regular intervals. The abrasive particles are made of hard materials such as aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, and diamonds, and they exert their polishing effect by scraping the surface to be polished.
Waterproof sandpaper can be wetted with water because of the use of water-resistant adhesives such as resin or rubber. The addition of water removes dust and wear particles generated during polishing and keeps the polished surface fresh.
Water also cools the heat generated during polishing and minimizes surface damage caused by friction. This is the reason why waterproof sandpaper produces a beautiful finish.
Furthermore, waterproof sandpaper is available in many types and particle sizes, making it possible to select the most suitable one for the application and for the material to be polished. Selecting the appropriate particle size enables efficient polishing operations.
Features of Waterproof Sandpaper
Waterproof sandpaper consists of natural or man-made abrasives uniformly bonded to the surface of a base paper with an adhesive. Artificial abrasives, such as silicon carbide and fused alumina, have the advantage of producing uniform abrasive paper.
Black silicon carbide, with its hard and easy to apply properties, is one of the most widely used abrasives. Paper used for abrasive paper includes kraft paper, and latex-treated paper.
Latex-treated paper is often used for the standard type of waterproof sandpaper, which is available in a wide variety of materials, including metal, wood, resin, and stone. Resins such as phenolic and epoxy resins are used as adhesives, which have excellent water and heat resistance and strong adhesive strength.
High abrasive power, meaning the ability to polish in a short period, results in a rougher finished surface, while a better finished surface results in a lower abrasive power. It is important to choose according to the uses of the work, which is more important, the polishing power or the roughness of the finished surface.
Other Information on Waterproof Sandpaper
1. Numbers on Waterproof Sandpaper
Abrasive paper and abrasive cloths always have a number on the reverse side. The number indicates the size of the abrasive grains applied to the abrasive paper or cloth and is the standard for roughness.
The size of abrasive grains is called “grain size,” which specifies the upper and lower limits of grain size. The smaller the number, the larger and rougher the abrasive grain, and the larger the number, the smaller and more suitable for finishing. These are the factors that determine the surface accuracy, which is the surface finish of the polishing process.
The number of grit is generally referred to as coarse, medium, fine, etc., but there are no specific rules for these names, and experience is the key to determining what grit size will give what level of finish and how to use the different grit sizes.
2. Composition of Waterproof Sandpaper
Abrasive paper consists of three components: paper, adhesive, and abrasive grains.
Paper Materials
AW is soft and suitable for curved surfaces, while EW is a hard paper base material suitable for use on machines such as belt sanders.
Abrasive Grain
Abrasive grains are available in natural and artificial materials. Natural abrasives are not uniform in properties and shape, and in recent years, most abrasive cloth and paper are made of artificial abrasives. They are represented by the symbol G (garnet), silicon carbide (CC), dissolved alumina (AA, AW), etc.
Some abrasive grains are made of diamonds, but these are used under names such as diamond sheets, which are a separate category from so-called abrasive papers.
Adhesive
There are two types of adhesives: natural adhesives (glue, gelatin, etc.) and synthetic resin adhesives (phenolic resin, epoxy resin, etc.), which differ in abrasiveness, surface roughness, clogging, and other characteristics. They are distinguished by the symbols G (glue), R (resin), and W (water-resistant resin).