Sandpaper, also known as sandpaper, belongs to the category of abrasive materials and is used for both initial and finishing processing of various types of surfaces. The importance and even indispensability of sandpaper is known to every craftsman involved in any kind of production or restoration work, repair of premises and restoration of products in particular. However, for several decades, sandpaper has been used in everyday life, it rightfully takes pride of place among any assortment of home tools.
The purpose of sandpaper makes it an indispensable tool in almost any work, and therefore the question of whether it is necessary to have sandpaper in the house simply does not arise. But at the same time, the task arises, and which sandpaper to choose for carrying out certain works, because it is classified according to several criteria and each representative of its classification has its own purpose.
In fact, sandpaper is an abrasive crumb, the grains are otherwise a powder applied to the base, while the number of crumbs, the type of their application and the type of the base of the skin itself can be different. Depending on these features, sandpaper is divided into a certain number of categories, and in order to choose the right sandpaper, its differences, features, and, accordingly, the classification must be taken into account in a complex.
The grit of sandpaper is one of the most important criteria for its selection, because this value almost entirely indicates the primary purpose of the skin and sets it a specific area of use. The paper grain characteristic has a digital marking, it carries information about the content of grains in one square inch of the surface of the skin.
Sandpaper marked ’10-40′ is considered the roughest, it can be used to easily remove paints and varnishes from various surfaces, the skin marking ’40-80′ is also quite rough and is also used for rough work. Material with a grit value of ’80-150′ is medium in roughness and is used for stain removal and rough preparation for finishing. Sandpaper marked ‘150-180’ has optimal hardness and is used for most work, while sandpaper marked ‘180-240’ and ‘240-320’ is intended only for finishing.
The next most important quality of sandpaper is the type of its base, in other words, the type of substrate, that is, the part of the paper on which the grinding grains themselves are located. To a greater extent, sandpaper is called precisely paper, because it has a paper base, however, modern production technologies make it possible to create sandpaper not only on paper, but also on a fabric and combined basis.
The paper cloth of the sandpaper is quite dense and at the same time it has good plasticity, besides it makes sandpaper cheaper, but by no means the strongest material. The fabric-based skin is created from cotton with polyester, after the base is made, it is impregnated with special solutions, and then an abrasive coating is applied to it. Paper with a combined base type has a paper-textile backing, so it simultaneously appropriates the disadvantages of paper strength and the advantages of a fabric-type backing.
Sandpaper is also classified according to the method of applied abrasive coating on its base, in this regard, it is divided into material with an open and semi-open type of abrasive, as well as into a skin with a solid and closed abrasive. Paper with open or semi-open abrasive is only half filled with sanding powder, so it is more suitable for sanding soft surfaces. The skin, on which the abrasive is applied in a continuous, otherwise closed type, is completely covered with processing grain, on the contrary, it is most suitable for processing surfaces of dense materials.