Development of Epoxy Resin Polishing Pads for Glass Polishing

Abstract

This paper describes newly developed polishing pads for glass finishing that employs an epoxy resin instead of a conventional polyurethane resin. The porosity of the polishing pad was controlled by changing the amount of a chemical foaming agents mixed with a prepolymer epoxy resin. It was found that the removal rate of glass surface using epoxy polishing pad was approximately two times higher than those using urethane polishing pad, which means a 50 percent decrease in a usage of CeO2 abrasives. The waviness and edge roll-off of polished glass surfaces were markedly improved by utilizing epoxy polishing pads, while the surface roughness of glass surfaces finished by epoxy pads was comparable to that finished by urethane pads. The investigation of substitute abrasive materials exhibited that the CeO2 abrasives were completely substituted for ZrO2 abrasives. The mechanism of higher removal rate of epoxy polishing pads was also investigated using measurement of contact angles, sliding angles and dynamic friction coefficient of polishing pads. These measurements indicate that abrasive grains are supported more strongly on the epoxy polishing pad than on the urethane polishing pad, namely, higher relative velocity between workpiece surface and abrasive grains to be obtained.