Patent ID: 7160173

Claim:
A process for characterizing the performance of an abrasive article for abrading a workpiece, the workpiece comprising a first material and having an abradable surface, the process comprising: (a) providing an abrasive article having an abrasive surface; (b) providing a test workpiece comprising a second material different than the first material and having an abradable surface thereon; (c) abrading the abradable surface of the test workpiece by applying the abrasive surface against the abradable surface of the test workpiece at a known applied pressure and velocity and relatively moving the abrasive article and the abradable surface of the test workpiece during a predetermined period of time; and (d) devising a performance index for the abrasive article based on performance of the abrasive article during the abrading of the test workpiece in step (c) which can be associated with process conditions under which the abrasive article can be used to abrade the abradable surface of the workpiece.