Sparks Fly at Meta By Peter Brett


motors and bearings, sometimes giving a working life for machines that is measured in weeks not years. As a major player in the grinders market – they


are Metabo’s biggest seller - the company did what all good companies do, and went back to end users to find out what they needed in order to come up with a competition-beating range of angle grinders. The answers I suppose were predictable:- end


users wanted a longer service life, dependable power, safety and compact size with ergonomic handling. Bearing all of these in mind the R and D team at


Metabo set about designing a range of grinders that would be truly world beating and innovative. My impression is that the purpose of so much effort and research is that Metabo wanted to make a revolutionary range of grinders that will change the ground rules forever. The Brand New Marathon Motor The core of an angle grinder is, of course, the


ToolBusiness and Hire were amongst the nearly 600 guests invited to attend the launch of several new Metabo products in Germany in early May. The guest numbers, the venues and the meticulous preparation by Metabo demonstrated that this launch was a big deal – a chance for Metabo not only to show a range of new products, but to demonstrate to the world that the company means business when it comes to innovation and the future. Fittingly, the venue chosen for the presentations


and dinner was an old power station in the village of Rottweil not far from the Metabo factory and headquarters in Nurtingen. Its faded industrial grandeur was a suitably gritty background for the launch of a key Metabo product group – angle grinders. CEO of Metabo, Horst


Garbrecht, and his team, gave a number of detailed presentations on the new products and Metabo’s routes of development in the future. And at the formal dinner the


motor, and Metabo boffins developed the legendary Metabo Marathon motor even further by making some radical changes. By adding more copper wire to the windings, power was increased. Over the range of grinders an increase of up to 30% in power means significantly more power on tap in demanding applications. And by adding more iron to the core by increasing the diameter of the rotor, torque was improved. Again, this torque works for the operator because the grinders can work harder. However, the design of the copper coils was such that the overall casing diameter was able to be reduced, creating a much more ergonomic shape that can be held more easily in the hand. In the past, 1700w of power has only been available in much larger 180 or 200mm grinders,


All these improvements to the motor resulted in a


number of ticks in the boxes – more power and more torque, a cooler running motor and a more ergonomic body shape – and a longer service life too. All these improvements added together are in fact a game changer in the evolution of angle grinders, and with a much


wider range of grinders now available from


Metabo, end users can enjoy all the advantages of the new patent-pending Marathon motor in a grinder that is much more targeted to specific needs. and these are not compact enough to be used in many grinder applications. It is therefore


not difficult to grasp that a large step up in power in a smaller grinder is a gamechanger. The commutator was


guests were not only well looked after but entertained by quirky performers on chosen Metabo themes. Great fun and helped by the lavish food and drink on offer. To get to the point - Angle Grinders I had no idea quite how big the world market for


industrial grinders is, but suffice to say it runs into tens of billions of dollars. Used in a large number of industrial applications like railways, shipbuilding, construction and power generation, angle grinders are consumed in the millions of units per year. By definition, they have a hard working life because the conditions of use produce the very things –sparks, fragments, heat and dust – that ultimately destroy


14 ToolBUSINESS+HIRE


lengthened too, lessening the amount of wear on the brushes and a new fan at the gearhead made for a much-


increased flow of cooling air- up to 400km/h! This


cooling air means that the new range of Metabo grinders can work on when most other grinders would have had to shut down because of overheating issues. Instead of vents on the side of the motor housing


that could be covered by an operator’s hands, the cooling vents are now at the front and back of the body, with an optional filter design that would prevent larger particles from entering the machine altogether. Further dust protection for the motor was also included by coating the windings with a strong baked- on epoxy.


www.toolbusiness.co.uk


Safety and Ergonomics The patented safety clutch, auto-balancers and


disc brake have made Metabo grinders some of the safest on the market. These were all included on many of the top end of the new grinder range so that users have all the advantages and safety features


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