How can we determine garnet quality? Is there “better” garnet and “worse” garnet?
Garnet is subject to two main specifications that can determine its performance as an industrial abrasive and therefore its value:
– quality constraints (such as purity and others)
– pysical properties (same aspects determining diamonds)
– processing
If first two elements are easy to understand, processing is also an important variable that can really affect the overall performance of the abrasive.
Depending on what is the deposit we can have different processing. Rock garnet shall be crushed to manufacture abrasive powder while sea deposits bear chlorides and organic elements. Some river/lacustrial deposits can have clay presence and mine deposits can bear hematite/magnetite intrusions.
It is therefore very hard to generally state a unique standard way to manufacture an industrial standard product, and absolutely it’s not just a mere
extract, wash, process and screen process to make garnet a quality abrasive.
Every different product has to be processed in a specific way, and we do it, with more than 8 different Garnet qualities to choose from.
Depending on product quality and hardness of crystal, Garnet can be recycled up to 5 times and used as an economical alternative to Aluminium Oxide, Chilled Iron or Steel Grit. Garnet Abrasive generally creates less dust than expendable abrasives as it breaks down less readily and contains little if any free crystalline silica, a harmful element that is told to be among the causes of silicosis.
Garnet abrasive is one of the most effective, safe, and versatile medias for blast cleaning (so called Dry Abrasive Jet) and waterjet (or more appropriately wet abrasive-jet)