Bosch Power Tools puts new coated abrasives plant into operation

Bosch Power Tools has put a new coated abrasives plant into operation at the Swiss location of Frauenfeld (Canton of Thurgau). In future, a large part of the product range will be manufactured in the new plant at the headquarters of sia Abrasives, which has been part of the Bosch Group since 2009. The plant spans an area of 10,400 square meters, which means that the production area has been increased by about a third. At a total cost of some 55 million Swiss Francs (about 45 million euros), the new building is one of the most significant investments made by Bosch Power Tools in recent years. “This investment is a clear commitment by Bosch to the Frauenfeld production location and to the sustained expansion of our abrasives business”, explained Stefan Hartung, president of Bosch Power Tools. For sia Abrasives, the new building represents the largest single investment in the company’s history of over 135 years. About 700 associates work at the Frauenfeld location. Automated manufacturing process increases flexibility The new abrasives plant provides a considerable further increase in delivery capacity and flexibility. Crucial to this is a new manufacturing concept that enables a largely uninterrupted production flow. Thanks to minimal changeover times, it will also be possible in future to integrate small quantities into the production sequence. Moreover, controlled processes and state-of-the-art sensors ensure even higher product quality. This is made possible by new measurement procedures: 1,000 process parameters – twenty times more than on the machines previously used – are permanently measured and controlled. The plant was built in accordance with strict ecological criteria. Thanks to a new bonding agent preparation system, for example, industrial wastewater is no longer produced. Optimized ventilation processes and heat recovery systems significantly reduce energy consumption, and all pollutants are completely incinerated in a regenerative exhaust air cleaning system. New sales opportunities with extra-wide sanding belts The new plant puts Bosch Power Tools in a position to produce an additional 40 million square meters of abrasives per year – assuming that the manufacturing width is one meter, this would be equal to the circumference of the Earth. All in all, manufacturing capacity has been more than doubled. “With this plant, we are meeting the constantly increasing demand for our abrasives and fulfilling the prerequisite for further growth”, emphasized Stephan Keller, head of the abrasives product unit of the Bosch Group. sia Abrasives is also using new machines which enable up to two-meter-wide sanding belt rolls to be produced. The extra-wide sanding belts open up new market segments and additional sales opportunities because the demand for them – for example in the chipboard industry – is constantly increasing. Source: Bosch.com