Machining abrasive materials, such as ceramics, will cause the spin disc to take on a sandblasted appearance over time, impairing vision. The spin disc is made from chemically strengthened float glass, but this nor any other available treatment, including the DLC (diamond-like carbon) coating available for high speed aluminum maching, will prevent the effect of sandblasting the glass surface.
It should be noted however, that some customers have purchased the Visiport and DiscAir system precisely for the cost saving and vision maintainability over traditional machine tool windows. (One customer purchased 10 replacement discs together with his Visiport for just such a ceramic machining application.) The OEM-supplied window will become permanently sandblasted unless replaced, just as the Visiport spin disc.
The difference is that replacing the spin disc is an inexpensive operation requiring two minutes of down time. Replacement of the machine tool window is far more expensive and often requires many hours of down time to tear down and replace the machine tool window.
The customer is invited to decide the cost-benefit ratio for abrasive machining applications, and to contact T2K for more information and pricing.