The surface structure of polishing pads for polishing using composite abrasives

Abstract

Cerium oxide (CeO 2) abrasives are generally used in the glass polishing because high removal rate and smooth glass surface can be obtained. However, CeO 2 abrasives have problems with dispersion of slurry and cleaning from glass surface. The polymer-CeO 2 composite abrasive was developed to improve polishing performance and decrease cleaning time of polished surfaces. The composite abrasive has a core-shell structure which a polymer particle forms a core and a CeO 2 layer covers the polymer particle. In this study, we investigated the effect of polishing pads on polishing characteristics of composite abrasives. First, we investigated the effect of the pore size of polishing pad on the polishing pad on the polishing performance using composite abrasives. We employed three suede type polishing pads for polishing using composite abrasives. The removal rate using suede type pads with average pore size of 20-60 µm was higher than that using suede type pads with other pore sizes. Next, we investigated the effect of pore diameter of porous polishing pads on polishing characteristics using composite abrasives. The removal rate using polishing pads with average pore diameter of 67µm was approximately two times higher than that of polishing using polishing pads with average pore diameter of 250µm. In addition, we investigated the relationship between removal rate and polishing conditions. The removal rate using composite abrasives was higher than 0.8µm/min when concentration of slurry was 3.0wt%. Finally, we employed epoxy resin polishing pads. The polishing characteristics using composite abrasives with epoxy polishing pad were higher than the polishing characteristics using composite abrasives with polyurethane resin polishing pads.