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Foundry Chemicals and Foundry Products
Shot Blasting Machines and Blasting Media - Vibratory Finishing Machines and Media
Garnet sand is a good abrasive, and a common replacement for silica sand in sand blasting. Mixed with very high pressure water, garnet is used to cut steel and other materials in water jets. Garnet sand is also used for water filtration media.
As an abrasive garnet can be broadly divided in two categories, blasting grade and water jet grade. The garnet, as it is mined and collected, is crushed to finer grains; all pieces which are larger than 60 mesh (250 micrometres) are normally used for sand blasting. The pieces between 60 mesh (250 micrometres) and 200 mesh (74 micrometres) are normally used for water jet cutting. The remaining garnet pieces that are finer than 200 mesh (74 micrometres) are used for glass polishing and lapping. Regardless of the application, the larger grain sizes are used for faster work and the smaller ones are used for finer finishes.
Because the chemical composition of garnet varies, the atomic bonds in some species are stronger than in others. As a result, this mineral group shows a range of hardness on the Mohs Scale of about 7.5 to 8 The harder species, like almandine, are often used for abrasive purposes.
