Tyrolit Natural Fibre Abrasive Discs Cooler and Greener?


I may be being controversial here, but I am willing to be corrected. It seems to me that many Northern Continental manufacturing companies take the Green Agenda more seriously than we do here at the moment. This may have something to do with the general cost-cutting atmosphere that pervades the UK currently, so priorities are different. But the positive is that we do have access to pretty well all the products from Europe, so we may still be able to get the benefits, if not the market share. The reason for the


rant above is a set of simple Abrasive discs I was sent for reviewing. Made by the very well established Tyrolit company, they were quite unusually different from many of the Abrasive discs I have tested over the years – the backing material of the discs was jute. A quick trip online soon made it clear to me that jute is a pretty amazing material. It wasn’t that long ago that Bangladeshi farmers were burning their crops of jute because the price at market was so low. But now there has been a re- recognition of its properties as a material. Completely bio-degradeable and recyclable, it is grown in hot, wet climates like India and Bangladesh. It is cheap and plentiful and with modern techniques of preparation, it has a wide range of uses, not only making sacks and doormats. The key properties of jute used in Abrasive discs are that it is naturally strong


when bound and woven together and it resists and dissipates heat better than many other materials. The fact that these discs are then naturally recyclable is an added bonus that ticks a nice Green box. Tyrolit as a company, has what they like to call a “Holistic View” of product


development, summed up in the three words “profit, people and planet” used in the disc packaging. Tyrolit aims to produce new products that not only perform very well, but are cost effective, efficient, environmentally friendly and conform to standards of recyclability. To this end, in the development of grinding materials alone, they have a team of over a hundred people working in research and development. I wonder how many companies worldwide can make that claim? With all this in mind I had


a closer look at the three discs I was sent to try out. Called the Tyrolit PIONEER range, they came to me in a round tin with a ying-yang design on the top and the rather paradoxical statement round the tin of “comfortable aggression”. There are three different coloured discs, black, blue and yellow. The grit on all three is a very aggressive looking 36 that promised rapid and sparky results. The yellow disc, to give it’s full title CA-P93 N, Ceramic Grain is intended for


use on stainless and highly alloyed steel. The abrasive is based on ceramic and aluminium oxide material that will cut aggressively but not so wildly that a smooth final finish is unobtainable.


telephone 01444 440188 Moving to the ZA-P48 N Zirconium with Top Seize Coat, the blue disc - this


has a zirconium based abrasive that is designed to last a long time when used on stainless steel and hardened steels. Finally, the ZA-P43 N disc is black coloured and also uses Zirconium abrasive


and is designed for use on Carbon steel and even non-ferrous metals. What all the discs have in common is a bonded jute backing that is combined with layers of coolant materials. Each disc is about 3mm thick and quite rigid, but not completely so. They are shaped a bit like a saucer, where the middle of the disc is indented with the arbor hole. This shape allows the discs to be mounted directly onto the disc grinder leaving a slightly flexible ring about 25 mm wide (on the 115mm diameter disc) of working grit face. (the discs are available in 115, 125 and 180 mm diameters) Since there is no


need for a rubber or composite backing disc, mounting the discs on the grinder is as simple as releasing


the arbor nut, fitting the disc into place and replacing the arbor nut. It does save a lot of time and hassle as anyone who has to match up backing discs with abrasive disc will tell you. The lack of a backing disc also prevents the build up of heat that can quickly destroy the adhesive and grit and the ultimately the disc itself in more conventional discs. Some users might question how rigid the discs are without a backing disc, and therefore the Tyrolit discs might be difficult to control in certain situations. The answer from my experience is that the discs are quite rigid enough, and don’t give a lot of vibration either, so are quite comfortable to use even for longer periods of time. Even after some five minutes or so of continuous use, the discs are hot to the touch, but not uncomfortably so, and are therefore safer in this regard too. I had to use a bit of


imagination in order to find a few appropriate metals on which to test these discs, but fortunately a friend with trade connections was able to give me the free run of his metal recycling skip. Having donned


appropriate safety gear, I was soon in amongst it, creating lots of sparks and shiny surfaces out of rusty ones. The things that I really noticed were the aggressive cutting of the grits on all the metals I tackled and the ease of use of the discs themselves whilst grinding. They were rigid enough to


give a flat surface, and yet gave very slightly too, so were quite gentle in application. At the end of my stint around the metal skip it was clear that none of the discs were worn out. They still have enough life left in them to see me through any grinding jobs I may have lined up for the foreseeable future. So it seems that Tyrolit has met the three aims of a reasonably priced disc that performs well and is easily recyclable – and that is the future whether we like it or not.


Reply No. 210 ToolBUSINESS+HIRE 17


Independent Review by Peter Brett


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