What is Slide Grinding?

Slide grinding is a mechanical chemical process for finishing the surfaces of different materials. The workpieces and abrasive media, so-called chips, to be processed are placed in the working tub and are set in relative movement to each other via vibration or centrifugal force.
 
The desired effect on the workpiece surfaces or edges is achieved by the sliding workpieces and geometrically specially formed abrasive media.  The material abraded from workpieces and abrasive media is flushed out by the water flowing through the working tub.  The process is supported via a chemical additive, the so-called compound. It provides for shining clean parts, and depending on the material and type of compound, furthermore for a rust-protected surface. 
 
The so-called smoothing process can have different objectives. It serves the purposes of deburring, descaling, grinding, polishing, rounding, shining, cleaning and surface coating or paint stripping. Depending on the objective, machines, abrasive media and compounds are selected, and often also tested in a test laboratory.  The primary purpose of slide grinding is not to improve shape and dimensional accuracy, but rather eliminate surface defects and generate specific surface properties.