Reducing Labor Costs by Adding Comfort

For metal fabricators, the cost of grinding abrasives normally represents around 15 percent of the total grinding cost. Cutting down on consumables costs may seem attractive at first glance, but reducing labor time is where fabricators will see real savings. Most of the improvements and trends in bonded abrasive technology have been to reduce labor time by improving productivity, safety and added comfort for operators:

1) Productivity. For a wheel to provide optimal productivity, it must offer a high removal rate, all while remaining durable. This will reduce labor costs because there is less time spent grinding and there is no time lost due to excessive wheel changeovers.

2) Safety. Safety continues to be an important trend in metal fabrication. At the risk of stating the obvious, accidents in the shop can slow down or even stop production all together. Abrasives with advanced design can provide better balance and safety than the standard discs and help prevent accidents on the shop floor.

3) Added Comfort. Comfort is a growing trend in today’s market. End-users are constantly on the lookout for products that can provide comfort in addition to performance and safety. Abrasive discs that increase comfort will reduce operator fatigue, meaning that he or she can perform grinding tasks faster and/or for longer periods of time. This translates to an overall increase in job productivity and real savings.

For a grinding disc to save fabricators real dollars, it must strike a balance between these three key trends – and much of the grinding disc technology being used on shop floors today offers high removal rates, durability and operator safety. But because grinding is one of the toughest, most demanding jobs in the metalworking industry due to the noise, vibrations and dust, one particular focus of advanced engineering design is on improving worker comfort. For example, our redesigned Xcavator™ grinding disc provides the operator with more comfortable, ergonomic working conditions, without sacrificing its performance and safety.

The Xcavator is built with proprietary Comfort Max™ Technology that is located in the hub of the disc. This new technology absorbs a portion of the vibrations felt by the operator when performing heavy grinding jobs. Not only are these vibrations extremely uncomfortable, but they can also lead to long-term consequences on the operator’s health, such as loss of sensation, light touch and grip strength in the fingers and hands. By incorporating Comfort Max Technology, this new grinding disc can reduce vibrations by up to 15 percent when compared to its predecessor, and it offers an optimal power transfer from operator to working surface. This reduction offers the operator a smoother, more comfortable grinding experience, which will help to reduce operator fatigue and vibration-induced pain in the hands and arms, all without sacrificing its superior performance.

The Xcavator is constructed with an extra-aggressive layer of enriched Zirconium grain to help deliver an industry-leading removal rate on steel, stainless steel and hard metals, such as tungsten carbide and quenched and tempered steel. As an added bonus, the wheel’s Fe-free formulation is guaranteed not to contaminate stainless steel. The grinding disc also features patented multi-layer manufacturing technology that creates an advanced design to help prevent edge flaking. This keeps the wheel edge symmetrically round for added safety and longer life. This ultra-high removal rate, combined with its durability and added comfort, can reduce the total time spent on grinding jobs and wheel changeovers and eliminate bottlenecks in production processes. At the end of the day, this is where fabricators will see the impact of real cost savings.

The Xcavator with Comfort Max technology was extensively tested in all conditions and is ideal for heavy grinding applications on even the industry’s toughest metals. Operators will really feel the difference, especially when using a more powerful grinder. This new grinding disc is at the forefront of abrasive technology, providing metal fabricators with more comfortable, ergonomic working conditions and the highest removal rate for steel and stainless steel.