The difference between grinding and polishing: Grinding uses abrasive particles coated or pressed on the grinding tool to finish the machined surface through the relative movement of the grinding tool and the workpiece under a certain pressure. Grinding can be used to process various metal and non-metal materials. The surface shapes processed include planes, inner and outer cylindrical and conical surfaces, convex and concave spherical surfaces, threads, tooth surfaces and other profiles. The processing accuracy can reach IT5~IT1, and the surface roughness can reach Ra0.63~0.01 micron.

Polishing is a processing method that uses mechanical, chemical or electrochemical effects to reduce the surface roughness of the workpiece to obtain a bright and smooth surface.

The main difference between the two is that polishing achieves a higher surface finish than grinding, and can use chemical or electrochemical methods, while grinding basically only uses mechanical methods, and the abrasive grain size used is coarser than polishing. That is, the particle size is large.