Machining Science and Technology

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Optimization of sandblasting process of complex

3D surface polishing using variable viscoelastic
diamond particles abrasive

Jung-Hua Tung, Cheng-Shun Chen, Wen-Yu Zhao & Cher-Ming Tan

To cite this article: Jung-Hua Tung, Cheng-Shun Chen, Wen-Yu Zhao & Cher-Ming
Tan (2018): Optimization of sandblasting process of complex 3D surface polishing using
variable viscoelastic diamond particles abrasive, Machining Science and Technology, DOI:
10.1080/10910344.2018.1486413

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10910344.2018.1486413

Published online: 05 Sep 2018.

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MACHINING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
https://doi.org/10.1080/10910344.2018.1486413

Optimization of sandblasting process of complex 3D

surface polishing using variable viscoelastic diamond
particles abrasive
Jung-Hua Tunga,b, Cheng-Shun Chenc, Wen-Yu Zhaob,d, and Cher-Ming Tanb
a
Graduate Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, National Taipei University of
Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, China; bCentre for Reliability Sciences and Technologies, Chang Gung
University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, China; cGraduate Institute of Manufacturing Technology, National
Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, China; dSchool of Chemistry and Chemical
Engineering, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, Inner
Mongolia, China

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
This article reports a novel and efficient diamond particles Abrasive blasting process;
abrasive with tunable viscoelasticity for sandblasting polishing. diamond particle; rust
Controlling the rust inhibitor content can change its viscoelas- inhibitor solution; surface
roughness value;
ticity to adhere diamond particles on polymer materials. Using viscoelasticity
the sandblasting mechanism, the abrasive deform and slide on
the workpiece surface, so that the diamond particles can cut
onto the surface peaks of the workpiece. Thus, the complicated
morphology can be rapidly and precisely polished. The friction
generated by the abrasive on the surface of the workpiece will
cause the rust inhibitor solution to evaporate, resulting in
reduced viscosity, which makes the diamond particles grad-
ually fall off from the abrasive. Applying Taguchi method, the
optimal parameters for viscosity and injection angle were
identified. The surface roughness was found to decrease from
Ra ¼ 1.47 lm to Ra ¼ 0.2 lm in 3 min. The two kinds of com-
plex concave surfaces of different materials were polished by
this innovative composite diamond particles abrasive with the
optimal parameter values, which has been verified to have 40
times higher efficiency than the traditional manual polishing.

Introduction
In 1904, Thomas Pangborn took Tillman’s idea of sand blasting by using a
high-speed turntable to create centrifugal forces, which allowed abrasive
particles to be combined with compressed air and a hand-held nozzle to
release and impact the surface of the workpiece for cleaning purposes
(Deng, 2005). Since 1939, in order to make the workpiece surface clean,
oxide layer removed, hardened, anti-fatigue, polished, etc., people have

CONTACT Wen-yu Zhao zhaowenyu2011@hotmail.com School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering,

Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Aerding Street No. 7, Baotou, Inner Mongolia
014000, China.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/lmst.
ß 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
2 J.-H. TUNG ET AL.

developed abrasive grains of wood, oxide, silicon carbide, quartz, glass,

resins, copper slag, steel balls, coconut shells, walnut shells and fruit stones
(Yi et al., 2009; Eriksen et al., 2012; Khellaf et al., 2017). Due to the
freedom of the blasting process, it is an efficient and advanced process for
machining complex 3D surface morphology. In particular, the polishing of
the plastic injection mold can reduce the injection pressure, increase the
injection speed, and reduce the flash burr of the product, thereby reducing
the defect rate (Tsegaw et al., 2015).
The principle of sandblasting is shown in Figure 1, and there are three
known abrasive grain materials containing diamond particles. Namely, the
diamond abrasive particle coated with titanium dioxide/alumina film (Hu
et al., 2011), fixed abrasive diamond particles (FADPs) (Dong et al.,
2012)and resin-bonded ultrafine diamond abrasive (Lua et al., 2017). These
three types of abrasive can only stick on the flat polishing disc (Moumen
and Busnaina, 2001) for them to be polished two dimensionally. As shown
in Figure 2, the roughness of the workpiece surface depends on the abrasive
particle size, so the disadvantage is that it is difficult to execute precisely.
These earlier mentioned polishing methods are not suitable on a 3D surface.
In this work, we report a novel composite abrasive of adjustable
viscoelastic polymer infiltrated by diamond particles. When abrasive
particles hit the workpiece, the abrasive deformation eliminates the
counteracting force from the nozzle, and the abrasive grains slide on
the surface of the workpiece. Thus, the diamond particles attached to the
abrasive grains can cut sharp peaks on the surface of the workpiece to
achieve the polishing effect as shown in Figure 3. The abrasive cutting
mathematical theory is as follows (Marinescu, 2015):
ðt
Dz ¼ kp vpdt
0

Dz: grinding removal volume

v: relative speed of the abrasive particle at near wall area;

Figure 1. Abrasive blasting schematic (Alao et al., 2017).

 MACHINING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 3

Figure 2. Flat abrasive polishing schematic.

p: relative pressure of abrasive particle at near wall area

kp: Preston constant that is determined by the particle size, shape,
abrasive particle hardness, workpiece hardness and surface hit angle.
This composite polishing abrasive is poly lauryl lactam (PA12) particles.
Its chemical formula is [NH-(CH2)11-CO]n and its structural formula is
as following:

The infrared spectrum was obtained by PerkinElmer L160000A FTIR-

ATR, and its infrared spectrum peaks locate at tested 1,628 cm1,
1,538 cm1, 1,453 cm1, 1,406 cm1, 1,335 cm1, 1,239 cm1, 1,081 cm1
and 1,043 cm1, respectively. This indicates that it is composed of benzene
ring, nitro compounds, aromatic rings, aromatic, alcohols and other
components, as shown in Figures 3a and 3b. After adding the water-based
anti-rust agent into the polymer, there will be no chemical reactions in the
anti-corrosion PA12. Using KEYENCE VHX-500 3D optical microscope,
the polymer irregular shape is of the size of 1–2.5 mm, as shown in
 4
J.-H. TUNG ET AL.

Figure 3. (a) ATR of abrasive (b) ATR of abrasive added with water-based anti-rust agent (c) polymer (d) Composite abrasive of hydrous polyamide infiltrate
with diamond particles.
 MACHINING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 5

Figure 3c. After adding water-based anti-rust agent, it will cause the mater-
ial particle size expand to 1.2 times from its original size, thus increasing
its elasticity. The water molecular in rust solution will infiltrate into the
molecular gap and hence increasing the number of hydrogen ions in the
material surface, thus enabling strong adhesion with the diamond particles,
as shown in Figure 3d.
The viscoelasticity of the material measured by water-based anti-rust
solution is of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 50%, respectively. The dynamic
mechanical analysis system (DMA) test of infiltrated polymer is shown in
Figure 4. E0 (G0 ) storage module indicates the ability to store elastic energy
whereas; E00 (G00 ) loss module indicates the ability to consume energy
through viscosity. Tan d is the ratio of E00 /E0 . The lower the value of Tan d
is, the higher the viscosity of the polymer is (John, 1980). From Figure 4,
the optimal solution for poly lauryl lactam (PA12) with the anti-rust agent
is 15%, 20% and 25%. The PA12 can adhere fine diamond particles, and
the elastic deformation of the abrasive can make it slide on the workpiece
for a longer time.
Using compressed air to drive and turn the table enables the composite
abrasive to be accelerated and hit the workpiece surface with an appropri-
ate angle. The abrasive particles experience a reaction force when it hits the
workpiece surface. The internal soft particles distort instantly because of
the stress and slide along the workpiece surface. The hard surfaces of
diamond particles will cause friction and incise the workpiece surface
which makes the shape protruding blunt. As is shown in Figure 5, this pro-
cess will repeat itself, in this way, abrasive particles are recycled.

Figure 4. Viscoelasticity of composite abrasives with different anti-rust agent solutions.

6 J.-H. TUNG ET AL.

Figure 5. Composite materials infiltrate diamond particles and sandblast polishing operation
diagram (John, 1980).

Figure 6. Preparation flow of viscoelastic diamond abrasive particles.

Experimentations
Preparation of experimental materials
Experimental polishing abrasive
The experimental set-up is shown in Figure 6. First, melt the poly lauryl
lactam (PA12) raw materials (round granular) into the extrusion machine.
The PA12 material will come out as chips. Second, use a cutting machine
to cut the long strip into 10 cm pieces. Third, the 10-cm pieces are crushed
by a shredding machine and sieve out particles size of 0.5 mm–2 mm.
Finally, water-based rust inhibitor solution of ratios 15:1, 20:1 and 25:1,
which are produced by Kelly Chemical Company, are mixed with PA12
materials into three different viscoelastic abrasive particles. The size of the
diamond-adhered particle provided by the Tong Ta Diamond Tools Co.,
Ltd. (Tainan, Taiwan) is #3,000 (The number of empty eyes per square
inch screen is 3,000 particles) diamond particles.
 MACHINING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 7

Experimental workpiece and machining

The hot-work die steel DAC (JIS SKD61) produced by Hitachi metal
company (Tokyo, Japan) is annealed to 1,020  C to achieve good toughness
and good resistance, and is treated with Quenching so as to increase hard-
ness from HRC50 to HRC55. It’s working temperature ranges from 400  C
to 550  C. In this temperature range, SKD61 has high temperature strength,
toughness and high temperatures fatigue strength. Even before heat treat-
ment, the material hardness is HRC15–20, which is good for cutting and
rotating optical performance.
The SKD61 material was processed using a H-110 discharge wire cutting
(Jørgensen and Hauschild, 2014) manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric
Corporation (Tokyo, Japan). Next, set the surface to three different rough-
ness according to the parameters shown in Table 1. After the wire cutting
process, the surface is found to be Ra ¼ 1.75 lm and Ra ¼ 1.47 lm and
Ra ¼ 2.0 lm as shown in Figures 9A, B and C, respectively.

Parameters used in abrasive polishing processing

The sandblasting processing parameters and experiment settings are shown
in Table 2.
Figure 7 is a sandblasting polishing machine and the internal abrasive
rail, nozzle and work platform, centrifugal disk configuration are shown in
Figure 5. The centrifugal disk of diameter 300 mm hides in the machine
body. The abrasive particles guided by 45 degrees through the nozzle
impact on the workpiece, and the workpiece is held by hand or robot arm
to move.

Taguchi's method experiment

Taguchi’s experimental method is used in the many experimental designs
(DoE), for it uses smaller number of experiments to achieve optimal
parameters. Comparing the response surface method (RSM) statistics and
mathematical model established by Box and Wilson in 1951, Taguchi
method is more suitable for the experiment in this article.
First, the content of water-based rust agent can vary the viscoelasticity of
the abrasive. This in turn will affect the collision time of the abrasive grains

Table 1. Wire EDM machine setup and workpiece condition.

Result workpiece roughness Workpiece properties and copper wire cutting
Ra ¼ 2.0 lm Ra ¼ 1.75 lm Ra ¼ 1.47 lm Workpiece dimension: 10  10  20 mm
Machining voltage and current setting Workpiece material: SKD61
40V, 10A (1st) 40V, 10A (1st) 40V, 10A (1st) Workpiece hardness: HRC55
　 50V, 4A (2nd) 50V, 4A (2nd) Copper wire diameter: 0.25mm
　 　 50V, 2A (3nd) Copper wire material: C2700
8 J.-H. TUNG ET AL.

Table 2. Sandblasting machine settings by MASCO TECH INC. YT-100.

Water-based anti-rust ratio 15%, 20%, 25%
Diamond particles size #3,000 (8.4 lm)
Variable elasticity composite abrasive particle diameter 0.5 mm–2 mm
Sandblasting machine injecting air pressure 6 kg/cm2
Environment temperature 15  C–30  C
Sandblasting machine polishing disc RPM 3,200 rpm(60 Hz)
Composite abrasive particles conveying velocity 300 m/s

Figure 7. (a) Sandblasting machine platform and guide and nozzle (b) sandblasting machine.

Table 3. Sandblasting polishing control factors and levels of Taguchi method experiment.
Factors Description Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
M Water-basedantirust solution content 15% 20% 25%
A Polish angle 25 45 65
T Polish time 1.5 min 3 min 4.5 min
W Workpiece roughness Ra ¼ 2 lm Ra ¼ 1.75 lm Ra ¼ 1.47 lm

on the workpiece surface as well as the adhesion of the abrasive with the
attached diamond particles. Second, the injection angle will determine
the pressure of the abrasive grains when it hit the workpiece. Third,
the sandblasting time will directly affect amount of cutting on the work-
piece surface. Finally, the workpiece surface roughness value will affect the
sandblasting efficiency. Therefore, we choose four control factors and three
levels of Taguchi’s experimental method as shown in Table 3.

Results and discussion

From the L9(34 ) orthogonal table of Taguchi’s experiment can then be
known, as shown in Tables 4 and 5, respectively, the values of the displace-
ment y and the g value [g ¼ log (y)] for optimum polishing can be
 MACHINING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 9

determined. The η value factor response and the best polishing redistribu-
tion factor are shown in Figure 8. From the experimental results, the robust
parameters were identified which are as follows: water-based antirust solu-
tion content of 20%, spray angle of 25 , processing time of 3 min, and the
workpiece surface roughness of Ra ¼ 1.47 lm. The best polishing efficiency
parameter combination is M2A1T2W3.
Figure 9 shows the workpiece surface photographs taken by the
KEYENCE VHX-500 3D optical microscope before and after polishing for
3 min, respectively, at working condition of M2A1W3.
Applying the robust parameters identified in Taguchi’s method on the
abrasive, the results on the two different lamp shade molds are as follows
shown in Figure 10. Initially, the roughness of both SKD61 and aluminum
lamp mold are of the value of Ra ¼ 0.4 lm. When #3,000 diamond particle
is adhered to abrasive particles and used to polish the SKD61 mold for
5 min, the roughness decreases to Ra ¼ 0.12 lm. The roughness decreases
to Ra ¼ 0.06 lm when abrasive that is adhered with #20,000 diamond par-
ticle size is used for 3 min. The same parameters are also applied on alumi-
num-lamp mold. It was found that the roughness of lamp mold decreases
to Ra ¼ 0.1 lm and Ra ¼ 0.047 lm, respectively, when #3,000 diamond par-
ticle are used for 5 min and #20,000 diamond particle are used for 3 min.
According to the data provided by the mold factory (Cosmovac Industries,
Ltd., Tainan County, Taiwan), this advanced diamond abrasive polishing
efficiency is 65 and 40 times higher than the traditional polishing methods.

Table 4. L9(34 ) orthogonal table.

No. M A T W
1 1 1 1 1
2 1 2 2 2
3 1 3 3 3
4 2 1 2 3
5 2 2 3 1
6 2 3 1 2
7 3 1 3 2
8 3 2 1 3
9 3 3 2 1

Table 5. Experimental data.

No. M A T W y g
1 10 25 1.5 2 1.81 0.258
2 10 45 3.0 1.75 1.05 0.021
3 10 65 4.5 1.47 0.98 –0.009
4 15 25 3.0 1.47 0.36 –0.444
5 15 45 3.0 2 1.01 0.004
6 15 65 1.5 1.75 0.89 –0.051
7 20 25 4.5 1.75 1.06 0.025
8 20 45 1.5 1.47 0.81 –0.092
9 20 65 3.0 2 1.63 0.212
10 J.-H. TUNG ET AL.

Figure 8. Factor reaction graph.

According to the results of the factor diagram in Figure 8, if the content

of water-based anti-rust solution in the adjustable viscoelastic polishing
abrasive is too high, the Tan d value will be low, implying that the elasticity
is poor and the viscosity is high. Therefore, the abrasive will slide on the
workpiece for a long time and adhere to its surface. On the contrary, if
the abrasive has a low water-based anti-rust solution content, its d will
become high and the elasticity will increase, thus causing the abrasive par-
ticles to rebound from workpiece surface, which causes the abrasive to lose
its polishing function. This shows that the adjustable viscoelastic polishing
abrasive can be both viscous and elastic at the same time. As such, it is
appropriate to 20% choose the water-based anti-rust solution content (M2).
When the particle size and hardness of the workpiece are fixed, the
removal volume increases, in a directly proportional manner with the
angle. However, due to the limitation of polishing, the particles must
be sliding on the workpiece surface, so a smaller spray angle of 25 (A1) is
used. When pressure and injection speed are fixed, the removal volume
increases directly proportional to the polishing time. It is known from table
in Figure 8 that 3 min (T2) has a higher
Ðt processing efficiency which is also
consistent with the formula Dz ¼ 0 kp vpdt. Finally, the smaller the work-
piece thickness, the more likely it is to achieve polishing goals. As shown
in Figure 10b, with a long polishing time, the surface roughness tends to
get a higher polishing efficiency and a higher accuracy.
Due to special properties of PA12 material, it was found that the
viscoelastic value of PA material increases when water-based anti-rust agent
solution is added to it. The amount of hydrogen ions present in the abrasive
 MACHINING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 11

Figure 9. (A) Before processing Ra ¼ 2.00 lm (up left), (a) After processing Ra ¼ 1.42 lm (down
left), (B) Before processing Ra ¼ 1.75 lm (up middle), (b) After processing Ra ¼ 0.36 lm (down
middle), (C) Before processing Ra ¼ 1.47 lm (up right), (c) After processing Ra ¼ 0.23 lm
(down right).

Figure 10. SKD61 and 7075 aluminum tool after using composite diamond abrasive sandblasting.

also increases, so it can be used to dip with diamond particle and enhance
the elasticity of abrasive. First, DMA system was used to to find E0 (G0 ) and
E"(G") so as to make particle viscoelastic curve chart and set the optimum
ratio of the water-based anti-rust solution content. Second, the designed
experiment (DoE) method was used to determine the optimum amount of
water-based rust inhibitor, whereas the robust processing parameters are
12 J.-H. TUNG ET AL.

obtained from the L9(34 ) orthogonal table using the Taguchi’s method.
Finally, the best method of sandblasting and polishing is used to process the
two different materials, and the roughness value and processing time are
obtained. Experiments showed that its efficiency increased more than 40
times as compared with the manual traditional methods.

Conclusions
This novel adjustable-viscoelasticity diamond particles abrasive is suitable
for 3D surface sandblasting polishing. The Taguchi’s experiments result
shows that it has very high polishing efficiency for the complex surface and
it can even polish narrow inner angles to mirror surface roughness quickly.
The polishing abrasive is adhered with diamond particles by physical
interaction of collision and then gradually falls on the workpiece. The
abrasive is finally recovered into the collector and its viscoelasticity will
be readjusted again for circulation polishing. Through this recovery
processing, it can achieve maximum economic benefits.
It was found that for superabsorbent and polymer materials with low
density, high viscosity and adjustable elasticity, when different concentra-
tion of water-based anti-rust solution is added to the abrasive, the optimal
sandblasting polishing parameters can be determined using the Taguchi’s
experiment method and performed on two different set of materials of
car lampshade reflection plates. The obtained results are further compared
with manual polishing and it was justified and concluded that this novel
sandblasting give higher efficiency.
Therefore, this innovative adjustable viscoelastic PA12 can be infiltrated
with fine diamond particles. By using the optimized processing parameters,
this abrasive will contribute significantly to three dimensional precise
polishing processing to achieve high efficiency and accuracy.

Acknowledgments
The authors thank the Kun-yu Pan’s general manager of Cosmovac Industrial Co., Ltd. for
providing the equipment and Chang Gung University Center for Reliability Science and
Technologies (CReST) for providing the facilities for the test.

Funding
This study was funded by Ministry of Science and Technology

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 MACHINING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 13

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