The digital age of abrasives

Mike Richardson attends the opening of Mirka’s new training centre to get hands-on with some of the company’s latest abrasives, surface preparation and dust extraction products available to the composites manufacturing industry.

Mirka UK unveiled its new Milton Keynes-based training centre on the 12^th September, and having circumnavigated the area’s numerous roundabouts on the journey up, I felt as ready as I’ll ever be in getting hands-on with the company’s range of orbital sanders.

Specialists in abrasives for surface preparation, Mirka has been one of the leading manufacturers to composite manufacturers for more than three decades with the clear objective of working with customers to develop the correct configuration of abrasive and machine operating parameters to optimise processes and provide cost savings.

The company specialises in coated, non-woven and dust-free sanding products for surface finishing with a product range that caters for both individual operations and complete sanding systems. Its expertise in flexible abrasives and products has seen the development of its Abralon, Abranet and Autonet product lines.

Mirka’s product range covers abrasives for the widest range of applications within the composites manufacturing sector, from the grinding of glass fibre-reinforced polyester and the sanding of contoured surfaces and moulds to polishing composite surfaces. The company’s dust-free sanding solutions and new sanding and polishing concepts are said to guarantee a high-quality surface finish on virtually all composite materials.

All my life’s a circle

Now, I reckon I’m a bit handy when it comes to building bits and pieces – like acoustic guitars – in my shed. Having suffered a potentially career ending injury with a router over the summer (it’s pretty pointless building guitars if you haven’t got the fingers to play them!) I was very keen to learn more about Mirka’s myMirka App – and particularly the innovative ways the company addresses health & safety issues like hand arm vibration syndrome (HAVS).

At the dawn of the fourth industrial revolution, myMirka is the company’s first foray into Industry 4.0 with what it is calling digital surface finishing solutions. The new myMirka app is available to download free of charge through both the Apple Store and Google Play. It indicates vibration levels on a colour graded scale, and advises on how to lower the vibration if needed. Additionally, the speed can be visualised in a separate graph. An in-app purchase will enable users to track the daily vibration in relation to European standards. Customers can register their tools and will be offered Mirka’s 2+1 Year Warranty through the app. myMirka will provide customers with all the latest product news, plus a feed of all the accessories they might need for the tool being used.

According to Mirka, myMirka is a simple way of looking after your hands when using a sander. By adding an integrated vibration sensor and Bluetooth technology to its most popular electric sanders, the myMirka Dashboard offers a whole raft of useful data at the users’ fingertips – how good is that?

“Digital technology has become a big thing for Mirka,” begins Peter Sartain, the company’s national sales manager, industrial. “Primarily, 85% of our business is concerned with sandpaper, but we have other applications where we can leverage on digital technology. Mirka will never want to be selling cheap tools to the major DIY supermarkets; we sell industrial tools designed for a purpose. What we need to be conscious of, is that anything we offer has got to be a usable technology.

“It’s all very well connecting a sander to a smart phone, but there needs to be a good reason for doing it, i.e. measuring the sander’s speed and the effects of vibration on the operator, for example. A customer will usually want to by the lowest cost hand tool with the lowest amount of vibration. Now they can buy a Mirka tool with the additional reason that as part of the Mirka Dashboard, they can monitor the tool’s performance. This is not a gadget – its usable added value for the customer. MyMirka is a great way of staying in contact with the end users of our tools.”

Take the rough with the smooth

Sartain is adamant that Mirka isn’t purely about just selling products, but in providing the correct training methodologies too. It’s more than just visiting Mirka’s network of distributors, but neither is it always possible to visit every end user and every composite manufacturing company too.

“We have to provide the assurance that when we sell our products through distribution, those distribution salesmen have a reasonable degree of knowledge of our tools. Our new training centre is here to educate distributors about our products. Mirka’s USP is that its people are specifically employed because their knowledge of the industry sector is so high. Generally speaking, an abrasive manufacturer will be providing solutions not only an OEM, but also to an SME too. Unfortunately, this isn’t always specific enough and we’ve found that our customers demand a much more technical approach. We are not in the business to stack shelves and sell products: we are here to say: we have a system and a process – we’re not the cheapest, but we are very good at what we do - and we know our staff. Either buy into it or don’t buy into it – this is where we stand. It’s what makes Mirka unique and it’s probably the biggest reason for our success. For the last 10-15 years we have demonstrated the ability to concentrate on a sector and have sector specific technical sales people that ‘know their stuff’.”

With my day at Mirka’s training centre drawing to a close, I reach the conclusion that whatever you want to know about from Mirka - whether it be health & safety information relating to HAVS, learning more about air tools - whatever it is you want to know - it can tick all the boxes and gear its training accordingly. In much the same way as you would use one of its orbital sanders, Mirka is making the most of a circular economy through long-lasting design, maintenance, repair, reuse, remanufacturing and refurbishing.

“Our vision is to reach a market where the customer and interested parties see us as a market leader and the most responsible company that drives innovation in our core business sectors,” Sartain concludes. “We want to be known as the company that gives you everything you need and which will work all the time, every time.

“We are in touch with what the marketplace requires and we are one of the fastest growing abrasives companies in Europe. We want to be seen as the market leader. Mirka is a great company to work for and every employee is challenged daily to innovate and improve on what they do. We’ve not reached perfection yet, but I believe it’s the best stance to take.”

www.mirka.co.uk