ADVANCING SURFACE
TECHNOLOGY Hermes Schleifmittel is a global leader in the field of coated abrasives technology. Philip Yorke talked to Dr Jan Cord Becker about the company’s ground-breaking ‘engineered abrasives’ and its plans for future growth.
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ermes Schleifmittel was founded in Hamburg, Germany, in 1927 and has risen to become one of the largest suppliers of coated and bonded abrasives in the world. Hermes abrasive tools are used to produce precision, functional parts as well as visually attractive surfaces. The company is a market leader in many important industrial sectors, including steel, automotive, furniture, wood and glass. Hermes operates eleven major production sites, as well as numerous sales offices throughout the world. The company is fully represented in all the main industrialised and emerging industrial nations with offices and facilities in more than 100 countries. This international presence guarantees a high level of customer care and service, regardless of where the company’s clients are located.
‘Engineered abrasives’ driving sales
The Hermes Group is dedicated to developing grinding solutions for a wide range of customer needs. These include coated abrasives, nonwoven abrasives and bonded abrasives. At its headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, the
company’s R&D department develops new application engineering technology. From this on going commitment to innovation, the company has developed a new generation of abrasives that it calls, ‘engineered abrasives’. Dr Jan Cord Becker, who was appointed chief executive of Hermes Schleifmittel in January 2010 after leaving his role as head of electrics engineering at Airbus Industries’ A380 programme, explains: “We have taken our engineered abrasive tools to a new level with our latest products. There have been three major, innovative developments in our new abrasive technologies. The first is a new development of the well-known ‘Hermesit®’ grinding belt, which performs five times longer than a standard belt and gives a perfectly constant finish. We have designed different versions of this belt with two special grain types. These special abrasive grains are applied to the hollow sphere bodies to ensure a very long grinding life and a consistent, high-quality finish.” For the very popular brush finish business, Hermes developed a cork finishing belt to achieve a brush finish on a wide belt grinder. This cork belt performs like an abrasive brush,
but as a belt, and gives the customer a satin brush finish like a super deburred surface. It is not only the unique surface quality that is a real advantage but the grinding ability is also enormous. It is possible to carry out a brush finish design with a feed speed of 70m/min with this cork belt on a wide belt grinder, instead of 10m/min on a brush roller unit. “Finally, for very high pressure grinding, we have developed micro-crystalline ceramic grain, known as Sapphire Blue®.” The company owns the patent for this special Sapphire Blue® grain type and offers several belt executions with this high-tech grain. Another brand new development is the application of Sapphire Blue® grain to a paper backing, which is ideal for applications such as stainless and titanium sheet grinding. In turn, this product offers a clear price performance advantage for our customers. “It’s premium products like these that are driving the abrasive market. However, in the mature and increasingly in the emerging markets in which we operate, there is clearly an increase in demand for ‘high end’ products such as ‘engineered abrasives’.”
