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Abrasives products with edges

Abrasives products with edges description/claims

The present application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/995,105, filed Sep. 24, 2007, entitled “ABRASIVES PRODUCTS WITH EDGES”, naming inventors Christophe C. Oliver, and Lionel J. Rossignol, which application is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

This disclosure, in general, relates to abrasive articles that have edges.

Abrasive articles, such as coated abrasive articles, are used in various industries to machine work pieces, such as by lapping, grinding, or polishing. Machining utilizing abrasive articles spans a wide industrial scope from optics industries, automotive paint repair industries to metal fabrication industries. In each of these examples, manufacturing facilities use abrasives to remove bulk material or affect surface characteristics of products. Various types of automated processing systems have been developed to abrasively process articles of various compositions and configurations. For example, coated abrasive strips, rolls or tapes, fed from automatic abrasive feed machines are employed to process parts, such as automobile and powertrain parts (e.g., crankshaft, camshaft, transmission shaft, steering shaft, steering rod). Although conventional coated abrasive strips, rolls or tapes in automatic abrasive feed machinery systems provide abrasive coverage to the process parts, certain process parts such as crankshafts and camshafts, can be hard to abrade due to sharp changes in curvature of the parts. Manual examination and verification is time consuming and costly. Poor abrasive coverage on the process parts can have very deleterious results, resulting in significant waste during manufacture.

In some cases it can be difficult to abrade a workpiece with an abrasive article due to the given shape of a workpiece that might have significant amounts of curvature and gradients. The inability to properly abrade the entire workpiece can have very deleterious results, resulting in significant waste during manufacture. Prior art coated abrasives with sinusoidal edges or coated abrasives with slit edges have been used in the past for improved conformability with some level of success.

However, as should be clear from the foregoing, the abrasive industry would be receptive to an abrasive article with improved conformability to allow more uniform abrasion of a workpiece.

In one particular embodiment, a coated abrasive includes a substrate. The substrate has a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface. A plurality of abrasive particles are affixed to the first surface by at least one binder. The substrate has a first edge and a first plurality of flaps defining the first edge. Each flap of the first plurality of flaps has an outer contour extending to a distal end. A line intersecting the distal ends of the first plurality of flaps define a first outer periphery of the coated abrasive, wherein a reference axis extending normal to the first outer periphery intersects a flap of the first plurality of flaps at two or more discrete locations along the outer contour of the flap of the first plurality of flaps.

In another embodiment, a coated abrasive includes a substrate. The substrate has a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface. A plurality of abrasive particles are affixed to the first surface by at least one binder. The substrate has a first edge and a first plurality of flaps defining the first edge. A first flap from the first plurality of flaps has a first straight lateral edge projecting from a first proximal flat to a first distal flat at an angle A relative to a first reference axis. The first reference axis extends normal to the first distal flat at the intersection of the first straight lateral edge and the first distal flat. A second straight lateral edge projects from the first distal flat to a second proximal flat at an angle B relative to a second reference axis. The second reference axis extends normal to the first distal flat at the intersection of the second straight lateral edge and the first distal flat.

In another embodiment, a coated abrasive includes a substrate. The substrate has a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface. A plurality of abrasive particles are affixed to the first surface by at least one binder. The substrate has a first edge and a first plurality of flaps defining the first edge. The flaps of the first plurality of flaps are spaced apart from each other by varying a non-constant distance.

In another embodiment, a coated abrasive includes a substrate. The substrate has a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface. A plurality of abrasive particles are affixed to the first surface by at least one binder. The substrate has a first edge and a first plurality of flaps defining the first edge wherein the plurality of flaps have different shapes.

In another embodiment, a coated abrasive includes a substrate. The substrate has a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface. A plurality of abrasive particles are affixed to the first surface by at least one binder. The substrate has a first edge and a first plurality of flaps defining the first edge wherein the distal edge of the flaps are wider than a proximal end of the flaps.

In another embodiment, a coated abrasive includes a substrate. The substrate has a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface. A plurality of abrasive particles are affixed to the first surface by at least one binder. The substrate has a first edge and a first plurality of flaps defining the first edge wherein a flap has a distal width, a proximal width and a median width where the median width is smaller than the distal width and the proximal width.

In yet another embodiment, a coated abrasive includes a substrate. The substrate has a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface. A plurality of abrasive particles are affixed to the first surface by at least one binder. The substrate further has a first edge, and a plurality of flaps defining the first edge. A first flap of the first plurality of flaps has first and second opposing lateral sides where the first and second opposing lateral sides have a respective first and second rectilinear portions. The rectilinear portions forming at least 20% of an outer periphery of the flap.

The present disclosure may be better understood, and its numerous features and advantages made apparent to those skilled in the art by referencing the accompanying drawings.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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