The characteristics of zirconia beads

Zirconia beads for grinding are high-strength, inert, hard, perfectly spherical, and fine particles. Applied in the grinding of coatings, pigments, and inks, they can reduce costs, increase solid content, enhance performance, and improve process operating conditions.

Compared with other abrasives of irregular shapes, zirconia bead abrasives roll easily like steel balls between bearings. With high specific gravity, easy rolling, and large kinetic energy, they reduce formula viscosity, increase fluidity, and improve coatability.

Zirconia bead abrasives have a small surface area-to-volume ratio, which enables reducing resin consumption and increasing filler dosage. Moreover, small-sized microbeads fill the gaps between large-sized microbeads, thereby increasing solid content, reducing VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds), and lowering costs.

Zirconia grinding beads have high hardness, wear resistance, and scratch resistance, saving the costs and time required for maintenance and repainting. When using traditional fillers, soft or irregular particles may cause surface wear or cracking.

Many gloss-controlling materials tend to increase viscosity. However, the use of zirconia grinding beads can significantly reduce gloss without increasing viscosity much.

Since they are composed of inert ceramics, zirconia grinding beads can resist the erosion of various chemicals such as acids, alkalis, and high temperatures.

Zirconia beads are transparent to ultraviolet (UV) rays below 25nm. UV energy can penetrate the entire coating, which helps in the deep curing of UV-curable coatings and improves construction efficiency. For the application of electron beam-curable coatings, zirconia beads can increase viscosity and control fluidity.

Due to their high compressive strength, zirconia beads are added during the production and grinding process. To improve the dispersion effect, sand grinding, ball milling, and roller pressing are all applicable. Compared with the use of other fillers with the same or lower hardness, zirconia beads cause less wear to the equipment.