Zirconia Content of AZ-40 Zirconia Alumina Abrasives

Whether zirconia content is stable is the most important indicator to measure quality stability of AZ-40 zirconia alumina.

We know that the root cause of grinding performance fluctuation is the changes of hardness and toughness of abrasive grains, and the hardness and toughness change is the change of microstructure, and the change of microscopic structure is particle toughening enhancement or stress concentration caused by the phase separation. Therefore, the key to stable product quality is to control the phase separation.

The ideal phase separation number should be less than 5%, and the homogeneous phase is calculated at 95%. If the disperse phase is alumina, zirconia content is 38%; If the disperse phase is zirconia, zirconia content is 43%. Therefore, high quality A -40 zirconia alumina should have 38% ~ 43% of zirconia content

It is proved that if the difference of zirconia content is 5%, the products’ grinding performance will differ by about 40%.

Zirconia alumina manufacturers adopt the test methods of zirconia content including Mandelic acid gravimetric method whose accuracy rate is 81% and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry whose accuracy rate is 89%.