Brown Fused Alumina- BFA
What is Brown Fused Alumina- BFA
Brown Fused Alumina, also known as BFA, is a type of artificial abrasive produced from smelting bauxite at high temperatures. It has a brown color and is used for abrasive blasting, conditioning, and polishing of metal surfaces. The chemical composition of BFA primarily consists of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and iron oxide (Fe2O3). It has high hardness and toughness, making it ideal for use in abrasive blasting equipment. Additionally, it is also used in refractory materials, ceramics, and resin-bonded abrasives. BFA has a long service life and can be recycled, making it an environmentally friendly abrasive material.
Benefits of Brown Fused Alumina- BFA
Hardness
Brown Fused Alumina (BFA) is highly durable and exhibits a great resistance to wear and tear due to its high hardness rating, making it an ideal material for abrasive applications.
High melting point
BFA has a melting point of about 2000°C, which makes it suitable for use in high-temperature applications like furnace linings, kiln linings, and crucibles.
High toughness
Despite its high hardness rating, BFA has excellent toughness, making it less prone to cracking and breaking. This property makes it ideal for use in grinding wheels and other abrasive tools.
High chemical purity
BFA is manufactured from high-quality raw materials and is free from impurities such as iron oxide and silica. The high chemical purity of BFA makes it an ideal material for use in refractories, ceramics, and electrical insulation.
Low dust generation
BFA produces minimal dust during use, making it an ideal abrasive material for processes that require a dust-free environment.
Cost-effective
BFA is an affordable abrasive material, making it a popular choice for many industrial applications.
Pressure Blasting
Blasting is used to clean, polish, cut, or finish surfaces. It is done by propelling media against surfaces using high-pressured blasting cabinets or blasting guns. Blasting can be done with a wet or dry process and is available in numerous grit sizes.
Refractory
BFA has hundreds of applications as a refractory material due to its ability to withstand continuous exposure to the combination of heat, corrosion, abrasion and impact.
Surface Preparation
BFA is used as a finishing media for cleaning and surface preparation products.
Anti-Skid
BFA grains are added to fresh concrete, paint, and bonding to surfaces using adhesives and resin cements in order to help prevent vehicle skidding.
Anti-Slip
Like the anti-skid methods, BFA grains are added to the surface material that is used in high traffic areas to prevent pedestrians from slipping.
Blasting Media
BFA can be used as a blasting media that is used to prepare and clean surfaces prior to coating.
Bonded Abrasives
BFA is used to make bonded abrasives like cutting-off and grinding wheels, snagging wheels, mounted wheels, segments, honing stones, plugs, cones, etc.
Coated Abrasives
BFA is used to make coated abrasives such as sandpaper and are available in sheets, discs, rolls, belts, pads, flap wheels, and other forms.
Coatings
BFA is often used as an additive to coating mixes to provide added protection against corrosion, wear and abrasion.
Types of Brown Fused Alumina- BFA
Regular Brown Fused Alumina
This is the most common type of BFA, with a brown color and a hardness of 9 on the Mohs scale. It is mostly used in abrasives, polishing, and blasting applications.
High Purity Brown Fused Alumina
This type of BFA has a higher aluminum oxide content and a lower iron oxide content, making it ideal for applications that require a higher purity level. It is mostly used in refractories, ceramics, and precision casting.
Low Iron Brown Fused Alumina
This type of BFA has a lower iron oxide content than regular BFA, making it ideal for applications that require a low iron level. It is mostly used in abrasives, refractories, and ceramics.
Brown Fused Alumina- BFA Chemical Composition
High Alumina BFA
Contains a high percentage of aluminum oxide (Al2O3), typically above 95%, and lower levels of impurities.
Medium Alumina BFA
Contains a moderate level of aluminum oxide, usually between 85% and 95%.
Low Alumina BFA
Contains a lower percentage of aluminum oxide, typically below 85%, and may have higher impurity levels.
Brown Fused Alumina- BFA Physical Properties
Grit Size
Brown fused alumina is available in various grit sizes, which refer to the particle size distribution. The grit size determines the surface finish and aggressiveness of the abrasive material.
Hardness
Brown fused alumina has different hardness levels, commonly measured using the Mohs scale or the Vickers hardness scale. Hardness affects the abrasive's cutting ability and durability.
Crystal Structure
Brown fused alumina can have different crystal structures, such as alpha (α)-alumina or gamma (γ)-alumina, which can influence its properties and performance in specific applications.
Note
Specific manufacturers or suppliers may have their own proprietary names or classifications for different types of brown fused alumina. Therefore, when sourcing or working with brown fused alumina, it's advisable to consult the manufacturer's documentation or contact them directly for accurate classification information.
What is Difference Between White Fused Alumina and Brown Fused Alumina?
Color
The most obvious difference is their color. White fused alumina is white in color, while brown fused alumina is brown.
Chemical Composition
White fused alumina is made from high-quality alumina powder as raw material, while brown fused alumina is made from bauxite, coke (anthracite) in arc electric furnace.
Hardness
White fused alumina is harder and more brittle than brown fused alumina, making it suitable for applications that require high cutting performance and precision.
Applications
White fused alumina is often used for precision grinding, polishing, and ceramics, while brown fused alumina is commonly used for grinding wheels, sandpaper, blasting media, and other general abrasive applications.
Process of Brown Fused Alumina- BFA
Fusion/Smelting
Calcined Bauxite, Anthracite and Iron Fillings are the main raw materials for producing of Brown Fused Alumina. Shengyu Abrasives choose the best quality calcined bauxite which contains about 88% aluminium oxide, which is the main source of Al2O3 in BFA. These raw materials are mixed together at certain proportion and fused/smelted in electric arc furnace in about 2200℃. Common furnaces are Fixed Furnace or Tilting Furnace(Dumping Furnace). During fusion process, iron contents settle at the bottom of the furnace, carbon contents go to surface of furnace, and aluminium oxide contents in the middle. The raw materials are crystallized and impurities are reduced. This is the most important process for Brown Fused Alumina which decided purity and hardness of it.
BFA Lumps & Crushing
The fused BFA are cooled down and crushed into big lumps which look brown. This is material of high aluminium oxide content. BFA lumps are then crushed into smaller sizes for further production.
Screening/Sieving
Brown Fused Alumina lumps grits are then put into crushers for further crushing into smaller sizes and screened into grits of different sieving distribution. This is coarse finer grades of good sieving distribution suitable for abrasives and refractory purposes. There are different quality standard such as GB,FEPA,JIS,ANSI standards. After screening, content of Aluminium Oxide(Al2O3) is about 95%, with little content of Iron Oxide(Fe2O3), Titanium Oxide(TiO2) and Silicon Oxide(SiO2) and little magnetic contents. Magnetic contents are then removed relevant equipment, which process is important as for refractory and abrasives applications magnetic contents will harm the finished products. For Al2O3, the finer(smaller) the grit is, the lower the content is.
Washing
Brown Fused Alumina grits are then washed by water or acid to remove dust, magnetic contents and impurities. These unnecessary contents are easy to cause scratch, corrosion, cracks and dark spots on abrasives and refractory products. Washing process also helps get harder and purer materials which have better performance and better for recycling.
Packing
After production, Brown Fused Alumina are packed and shipped to customers. Most common packing are Big Bags of 1 metric ton, 1.2 or 1.3 metric tons. Or packed into 25kg woven plastic bags or 25kg paper bags, and 40 bags on a pallet.
Eliminate anomalous expansion of brown fused alumina abrasive grain
In the process of electric arc furnace, under temperature of 900-100℃ calcined, the chemical of Ti2O3, TiO, Tic and TiN be oxidized which lead to the BFA material increase in size that over it’s normal expansion. BFA anomalous expansion will lead the crack in grinding wheels while fired. Therefor, by high teat treated process, anomalous expansion of brown fused alumina in producing abrasives be avoided.
Improve BFA materials toughness and abrasiveness
The compression strength of brown fused alumina increased after high heat treated. Besides, The internal stress caused in the grain production process be improved. Therefore, the coated and bonded abrasives made by high heat treated brown fused alumina have the characteristic of durable, sharpness and high grinding performance.
Improve Brown fused alumina hydrophilic feature
Under 800℃ to 900℃，the volatile material, impurities and low melting point materials will be eliminated.
Improve the toughness of abrasives tools
High heat treated brown fused alumina has high purity and cleanliness which help improving the grain connected with binder, decreasing the using of binder and improving the abrasives toughness. By using good hydrophilic brown fused alumina, the durability of abrasive tools will be increased 30%-50%.
Improve the appearance and grinding performance
The magnetic material can be reduced in the high heat treat process which ensure no spots in abrasives surface.
Cleaning
Before using BFA, remove any dust or debris that might have accumulated on the surface. You can use compressed air, vacuum cleaners, or soft-bristled brushes to clean the material. Avoid using harsh chemicals or solvents that might damage the BFA.
Reusing
BFA can be reused multiple times, depending on the applications and the level of wear and tear. Make sure to inspect the material before reusing it to remove any broken or cracked particles.
Storage
Store BFA in a dry place to prevent moisture absorption and corrosion. It is also recommended to store it away from direct sunlight and heat.
Handling
Avoid rough handling of BFA, as it can lead to breakage and cracks.
Vision
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Our Factory
Zhengzhou mayjoy abrasives co., ltd mayjoy abrasives has been in the field of fused aluminum oxide over 20years, in the beginning, the director Mr. Feng only has 1 production line, it was hard. But after these years effort, he has more than 5 lines with two plants, and also set up a very professional exporting sales team since 2013, now working with America, South America, Southeast Asia, Europe, etc more than 30 countries.
FAQ
Q: What is brown fused alumina used for?
Q: What are the applications of BFA?
Q: What are the advantages of BFA over other abrasives?
Q: What are the different types of BFA available?
Q: What are the key properties of BFA?
Q: What are the environmental concerns associated with BFA?
Q: What is the difference between brown fused alumina and white fused alumina?
Q: How do you make brown fused alumina?
Q: What is the difference between white and brown alumina?
Q: What is the difference between WFA and BFA?
Q: What is brown fused aluminum oxide?
Q: What is the difference between alumina and alumina oxide?
Q: Is ceramic alumina the same as aluminum oxide?
Q: Is fused alumina reduced to aluminium by electrolysis?
Q: What is the manufacturing process of BFA?
Q: Is BFA safe to use?
Q: What are the applications of BFA?
Q: What is white fused alumina for refractory?
Q: What is white fused alumina and brown fused alumina?
Q: What happens during electrolysis of alumina?
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