Wool Felt Polishing Wheel

Step 1: Formation of the Felt Base

This is the core step, aimed at producing a dense, resilient, and abrasionresistant wool felt layer that directly determines the polishing performance of the wheel.

1. Wool Selection & Preparation – Highquality natural wool (such as Australian fine white wool) is used as the raw material. The wool is sorted, washed, and treated to remove impurities and grease.

2. Carding into Web – The cleaned wool is opened and carded to form a singlelayer fibrous thin web.

3. Layering & Preforming – Multiple layers of the fibrous web are crosslaminated to achieve the required thickness, forming a fluffy felt preform.

4. Fulling & Setting – This is the critical step where wool fibers become tightly entangled and felted together. Through heat processing, beating/faller treatment (which causes fibers to interlock), and hot water rinsing (utilizing wool's natural shrinkage property when heated), the fluffy preform shrinks and densifies into a structurally compact felt. This process significantly reduces the volume of the felt while greatly increasing its density.

Step 2: Machining & Assembly

Once the felt base is formed, further processing is required to create a felt wheel ready for mounting on polishing machines.

1. Punching/DieCutting – The formed felt is diecut or stamped using pressing machinery to produce felt rings of the required outer diameter, thickness, and shape.

2. Assembly with Support Components – The felt ring must be combined with a metal or plastic support component (such as a plastic hub or metal disc) to be mounted onto the spindle of a polishing machine. The traditional method uses universal adhesive for bonding. However, this approach has drawbacks, including weak adhesion, a tendency to detach, and low production efficiency.

3. Advanced Integrated Injection Molding – A more advanced process is injection molding. The procedure is as follows:

1) A dedicated injection mold is manufactured.

2) The diecut felt ring is placed into the designated position within the mold.

3) The mold is closed, and molten plastic (e.g., polypropylene, ABS engineering plastic) is injected into the mold cavity at high temperature.

4) As the plastic cools and solidifies, it fuses firmly with the felt ring, forming a onepiece, integrated felt wheel. This method is more environmentally friendly, provides stronger bonding, and offers higher production efficiency.