Sanding and grinding on a global scale

Sia Abrasives, headquartered in Switzerland, is one of the world’s three leading suppliers of innovative abrasive systems. Sia Abrasives, which belongs to the Bosch group, has subsidiaries in 17 countries and has representatives in more than 80 others. Barbara Rossi reports.

Sia Abrasives develops, manufactures and markets complete abrasive systems, tailored to specific requirements and applications, for the surface treatment of every type of workpiece. Thanks to its products, Sia turns sanding and grinding into surface technology. The company, part of Bosch since 2008 and belonging to the Bosch Power Tools Division, is specialised in coated, bonded, non-woven and foam abrasives.

Its roots go back to 1867, when it was established as a chemical factory in Frauenfeld, where it is still based. Over the years, the company started to develop abrasives and converted into a stock corporation. Since the turn of the twentieth century, Sia Abrasives Industries AG has been the only Swiss company making coated abrasives. In more recent years Sia has expanded into non-woven abrasives, with the acquisition of Fibral Ltd, a UK-based company, and into abrasive-coated foam products, thanks to the acquisition of another UK company, Abrafoam Ltd. In the last 40 years Sia Abrasives has increased its workforce from 150 people to more than 1250 worldwide. Sia exports more than 90 per cent of its production to over 80 countries.

Sia Abrasives’ product lines include coated abrasives, non-woven abrasives, foam abrasives, micro abrasives, and bonded abrasives. The coated abrasive division manufactures classic coated abrasives and abrasive systems for conventional surface preparation and finishing on all kinds of materials. This range of products is manufactured by Sia Abrasives Industries AG, originally established in 1914, and employing about 650 people. The company is now one of the world’s largest manufacturers of coated abrasives and it manufactures and converts coated abrasives for metalworking, automotive paint and bodywork, woodworking specialists and panel producers.

Fibral manufactures non-woven abrasives for surface preparation, cleaning and structuring, primarily for use on metal. Production takes place in the UK, specifically in Greetland, west Yorkshire, where Fibral Ltd is based. Fibral, with its wealth of experience in the manufacture and development of non woven abrasive systems, is an ideal complement to Sia Abrasives’ systems solutions. Its non-woven products are manufactured using an innovative continuous treatment technology able to offer many benefits over traditional alternatives, particularly the fact that non-woven abrasives are highly conformable, able to ensure a consistent cut and finish throughout their lives, feature an open structure able to significantly reduce clogging, and can be used wet, dry, with solvents or with cutting fluids.

Foam abrasives are the field of expertise of Abrafoam Ltd. The company, based in Derbyshire, UK, where it was established in 1946, joined the Sia group in 2005, employs a workforce of around 100 people and is a world market leader in quality abrasive foams. The quality of its products, which are exported all over the world, is renowned at a global level. Its integration into the Sia group has endowed Sia with new opportunities and its range perfectly complements Sia’s range of products. The company is also at the forefront in its field in terms of commitment to the environment. In fact its in-house manufacturing process already recycles most of the waste foam, turning it into reconstituted products. In addition to this, Abrafoam Ltd is investing heavily in a totally solvent-free manufacturing process,

and, in recent years, has won government awards for innovation and for its contribution to the environment.

Micro abrasives are marketed through the Microtec brand, launched by Sia Abrasives several years ago to market these products for finishing applications in conventional and high-tech markets. These are products made of special polyester film, elutriated or electrostatically coated with abrasive particles, and then manufactured and converted at the Frauenfeld headquarters. Sia employs CR-Finishing® (constant result finishing), an efficient method in which every finishing task is considered part of the entire process and which ensures that the required surface results are achieved first time.

The bonded abrasives line offers precision cutting discs for optimum cutting performance and efficient grinding discs for a wide variety of metalworking applications.

Quality, innovation and the environment

Several years ago Sia decided to focus on products for the metal, wood and automotive industries, although alongside those types of products, it also produces a range of products suitable for other industries. Sia, which is totally committed to product quality, carries out ongoing investment. Currently it is investing in a new facility for manufacturing coated abrasives. The purpose of this new facility is to set the stage for sustainable growth, while also ensuring a technological lead. The location of this new building will be the Sia Abrasives Swiss site.

Film sanding belts are products recently developed by Sia, a premium product for perfect polish sanding, which offers an efficient ultrafine sanding of high-gloss varnishes, economical stationary polish-

ing preparation with long/cross belts, and removal of varnish flaws such as trapped dust and orange peel effect, thanks to perfect flatting.

Innovation is crucial for the company, as it needs to develop products able to finish the continuously evolving products that appear on the market. Reducing product development time is a must for Sia, so as to be able to keep pace with, or even anticipate, customers’ needs.

Alongside quality, Sia has a total commitment to the environment, trying to continually reduce its environmental impact. The company employs low-phenol and watersoluble bonding agents in manufacturing, and has state-of-the-art systems to filter exhaust air, as well as using environmentally sound waste disposal methods. It also repeatedly recycles packaging materials, conserving energy and resources.

The company, whose production still takes place in Switzerland, from where its foreign subsidiaries receive large jumbo rolls of product, which they then convert, has core values emphasising authenticity, honesty and frankness, as well as the importance of the individual. For this reason it assists and promotes its staff in the building of their careers in an environment of mutual respect and tolerance. Sia’s growth has historically being achieved thanks to organic growth, as well as to acquisitions. n