Rare earth polishing powder.

A powdered mixture of light rare earth oxides with cerium oxide as the principal component used to improve the surface finish of products or parts. A powdered mixture of light rare earth oxides with cerium oxide as the principal component used to improve the surface finish of products or parts. It is usually made from fluorocerium concentrate or soluble rare earth salts by chemical treatment, burning, grinding and screening. The polishing ability of rare earth polishing powder is closely related to the content of cerium oxide and the physical and chemical properties of polishing powder such as viscosity and chemical activity.

Generally rare earth polishing powder with high amount of cerium oxide has strong polishing ability, but high cerium rare earth polishing powder is expensive, and low cerium rare earth polishing powder is widely used. In the process of making rare earth polishing powder, additives containing fluorine and sulfate are usually added to make it produce fluoride and sulfate.

Rare earth polishing powders containing fluoride and sulfate generally have better polishing properties. The specifications and models of rare earth polishing powder in different countries are not the same. Generally, they can be divided into low cerium, rich cerium and high cerium according to the content of cerium oxide. In China, rare earth polishing powder is divided into three systems, oxalate, sulfate (including double salt) and fluorocarbonate, according to different processing techniques.

Compared with Fe2O3, Al2O3 and other grinding materials, rare earth polishing powder has the advantages of fine particle size, good chemical activity, strong grinding ability and long service life. It is widely used in the polishing of optical glass parts, TV tube glass shell, eyeglasses, plate glass, osciloscope tube and organic glass products.