Smearing

Smearing

Example: Smearing on soft ductile steel, Mag. 15x, DIC.

The plastic deformation of lager sample areas is called smearing. Instead of being cut, the material is pushed, moved across the surface. The reason is an incorrect application of abraive, lubricant or polishing cloth, or a combination of these, which makes the abrasive act as if it was blunt.There are three possibilities to avoid smearing: 1. Lubricant: check the amount of lubricant, smearing often occurs at too low a lubricant level. If increase amount of lubricant. 2. Polishing cloth: Due the high resilience of th cloth the abrasive can be pressed too deep into the cloth and can not cut. Change cloth with lower resilience. 3. Abrasive: the diamond grain size might be to small, the prticles can penetrate into the material and because of that can not cut.

Reference: Metalog Guide, page 70-71, Struers A/S, 2610 Rodovre, Dennmark. Note: Image and text by courtesy of Struers A/S company.