We saw many colors of Bias Ventilated Buffing Wheel in the market, how to chose the right colors while chosing buffs for your buffing and polishing work?
What is an Airway Buffing Wheel?
Airway buffs are a type of buffing and polishing wheel that is made up of multiple plys of cotton cloth attached to a steel center plate. Each cloth layer of these 16-ply wheels is attached to the steel plate in a way that forces the cotton to form pleats.
High-speed buffing and polishing wheels can create a lot of heat from the constant friction of the wheel, surface being buffed, and polishing compound grinding at the same time. The fold are designed to increase airflow so that you can buff and polish at a lower temperature. This allows you to work continuously longer than traditional polishing wheels, extends the overall serving life of the airway buff, and lowers the chance of causing damage or burn to the object you are polishing.
Interested in production of airway buffing wheel? Move to another post of us: How to produce airway buffs?
Airway Buffing Wheel Colors
The different colors of airway buffs are not there to let you work with your favorite color. Each of these colors has a different firmness/softness of the cloth pieces which are meant for different steps in the polishing process. You should also consider pairing each color buffing wheel with the appropriate color buffing compounds.
Yellow Buffing Wheel (Yellow Mill)
Yellow airway buffs are mill treated with some chemical materials like amylum and resin to increase stiffness. Yellow buffs should be used in the first step of buffing and polishing. this makes the orange airway buffs optimal for cutting, the first stages of the buffing process.
Recommended buffing compound: yellow or green
Blue Buffing Wheel(Blue Mill)
Blue airway buffs are mill treated also to increase cutting force. but are 15% less stiff than their yellow counterpart. Blue buffs should be used in the second step of buffing and polishing.
Recommended buffing compound: yellow or green
Orange Buffing Wheel (Orange Mill)
Orange buffs are mill treated to increase the firmness of the cloth flaps. But It’s relatively soft, this makes the orange airway buffs the third stages of the buffing process.
Recommended buffing compound: Black
White Buffing Wheel(muslin)
White buffing wheel which are make of muslin or poplin fabric. Use for final fine mirror finish. Harder than domet flannel, but more endurable and economic. If your finish request is not very high, this is a good choice for the last mirror finish step.
Recommended buffing compound: White
White Buffing Wheel(domet flannel)
White airway buffing wheels are made of soft domet flannel. They are left untreated to remain ultra-plush. Unlike treated airway buffing wheels, the white domet fabric buffs are best saved for the final polishing stage when you want to get the perfect shine or a mirror finish. There are typically 2 types of domet flannel, one is bleach, the other one is oringal beige color.
Recommended buffing compound: White
Tips for Using Airway Buffing Wheels
Use light pressure and allow the buffing compound to do the work. Increasing the pressure against the surface being polished will not help you get a better shine or get the job done faster.
Start buffing from the top of your surface and work your way down to the bottom using a consistent and smooth side-to-side motion. You should make several passes, overlapping each time to make sure you evenly cover the entire surface.
Notice:
Though above are many different colors, not all these are need for polish works. Functions of some colors are overlapped indeed. Depend on different materials or surface situation, some steps can be eliminated.