Garnet

Garnet

A Garnet is best known as abrasive garnet sand. It appears in many colors and has numerous industrial uses. The very first industrial use of this grit was abrasive. Garnet is a very hard mineral that has a hardness of ranges between 6.5 and 7.5 in Mohs. That allows it to be used as an effective abrasive in many types of manufacturing systems.

Garnet is the name used for a large group of rock minerals. These rock minerals share a common crystal structure and a chemical composition of X₃Y₂(SiO₄)₃. In this composition, "X" can be Ca, Mg, Fe^2+, or Mn²⁺, and "Y" can be Al, Fe³⁺, Mn³⁺, V^3+, or Cr³⁺.

When the garnet is crushed, it breaks into angular pieces that have sharp edges for cutting, sanding, and washing. The Small granules of this abrasive of uniform size are bonded to paper to produce reddish color sandpaper that is widely used in woodworking shops. A Garnet is also crushed, screened to specific sizes, and sold as abrasive granules and powders also.

Properties

The Garnet includes some minerals like almandine, pyrope, spessartine, andradite, grossular, and uvarovite. These all minerals have a vitreous luster, a transparent-to-translucent diaphaneity, a brittle tenacity. They can exist as individual crystals, stream-worn pebbles, granular aggregates, and massive occurrences.

Physical Properties

• Chemical Classification             Silicate
• Color                                         Red, but can be yellow, purple, black, brown
• Streak                                        Colorless
• Luster                                         Vitreous
• Diaphaneity                                Transparent to translucent
• Cleavage                                     None
• Mohs Hardness                          6.5 to 7.5
• Specific Gravity                          3.5 to 4.3
• Diagnostic Properties               Hardness, specific gravity, isometric crystal
• Chemical Composition              General formula: X₃Y₂(SiO₄)₃
• Crystal System                            Isometric 

Different Sizes

Garnet abrasive is available in different sizes according to the need of the component so here are some sizes of this abrasive.

• 12/40 Mesh             100-150 microns
• 20/40 Mesh             75-100 micron
• 20/60 Mesh                50-90 microns
• 30/60 Mesh                50-75 microns

Applications

• Sand blasting machine
• Water jet cutting
• Water filtration
• washing of denim fabrics
• Industrial Flooring
• cleaning & finishing glass faceplates of televisions, computer monitors, and optical glasses