Luck and success in the years of decisions – new beginnings
“When I held my first diamond in my hand in 1908, I would not have imagined that one day diamonds would not only be used in the automobile industry but also for the machining of wood and plastics.”
Jakob Lach, company founder of the German sister LACH DIAMANT, said this on camera in 1980. It would become the preface for the first presentation of a new technique for machining wood and plastics – using diamonds as cutting material – the Dia Tool. This video, with audio translated into multiple languages, has lost none of its relevance for the choice of appropriate tools within the furniture, flooring and composite industries.
journal of hp tooling
This article was published by hp tooling (issue #2 | 2024) as part 9 of the 100 Years LACH DIAMANT series.
It happened on a day in January, 1981; the phone call came as a surprise and unexpectedly …
By now, the LACH DIAMANT company – Jakob Lach GmbH & Co. KG in
Hanau am Main – was comprised of four production facilities.
Hanau, Ameliastrasse, the newly founded LACH-SPEZIAL-WERKZEUGE
GMBH for the production of diamond/PCD tools for cutting wood, plastic,
and composite materials (GRP, CFRP) for the furniture and flooring industry, aircraft industry and circuit board manufacturing industry.
Hanau, Fasanerieweg, the LACH DIAMANT production of resin and metal bond diamond and CBN grinding wheels for the grinding of carbide, hardened steel, ceramics, and glass.
Hanau, Bruchköbeler Landstrasse 39, with the grinding shop division for the production and service of natural diamond turning tools, profile and copy diamonds, as well as single-point dressing diamonds for the dressing of traditional grinding wheels, and – in the new building no. 41 – the production and service of dreborid PCD cutting tools for the turning and milling of aluminum and other non-ferrous materials, graphite, and green ceramics, as well as hardened steel.
Every day logistics and communication had to be mastered, with corresponding effort and expense, by sales, production planning and shipping. The accounting and finance department were housed in additional containers. In other words it had become quite crowded. No wonder, the successful expansion of all LACH enterprises demanded its price.
Day by day, the production team was confronted with new ideas to expand applications for polycrystalline tools, to cut costs, to multiply tool lives, and thereby to render possible new products and designs. For example, so far profile/thread turning tools had to be polished in a timeconsuming manner on profile grinding machines, but now eroding made this process fast and easy.
Or, the newly developed, and patent-pending diamond dressing roll drebojet®, featuring a new technology for “milling instead of dressing” of traditional grinding wheels with drebojet® PCD mill-dressing rolls (later European patent no. 0038929).
“In short, and this was clear to all of us: it could not go on like this. We had to find a solution for the future, and build new.”
…so, I picked up the phone
Mr. Schmitz (name changed) from Wiesbaden was on the line, introducing himself as a business consultant for Israeli companies. He represented a small start-up company from the Sea of Galilee, interested in know-how for the production of electro-plated diamond needle files. “As a manufacturer of diamond tools, you can surely help me”, he said. At first, I was surprised, and answered: “Why of all things, know-how for diamond needle files? Worldwide, many people are dealing with this product”, and after a little pause I added “LACH or LACH DIAMANT has something better for this start-up company.” “What would that be?” came the next question, as expected. “Unfortunately, I cannot reveal this just yet, the product patent is still pending…” This is how the first conversation proceeded, back and forth, and it continued like that in the following conversations with the now curious start-up company and its investors.
Successful conclusion
To make a long story short: a few weeks later, on March 30th, 1981, we met again at a Frankfurt notary in order to finalize a multi-million know-how and license contract, including the required eroding machines (with LACH EDG technology) for the manufacturing of polycrystalline (PCD), wood and plastic cutting tools.
Both parties were satisfied. Our contract partner’s trust in LACH DIAMANT was not disappointed. And we could start our new building project faster, due to better framework con-ditions. After a short search a large, undeveloped major property was found at Donaustrasse in Hanau. This was the one, and most successful, single transaction of the year 1981.
this was left of the original aluminum block at the end of the trade show
All in all, three trade shows were at the center of our attention, all attended by LACH DIAMANT and now also by LACH-SPEZIAL. First of all, FAMETA in Essen. For the first time, we had a live demonstration of a PCD cutter for alumi-num profiling on a Hermle tool milling machine. After the world premiere of diamond tools at LIGNA 1979, LACH-SPEZIAL exhibited a second time at this trade show and presented the new diamond technology to a fascinated industry.
All this even though some competitors warned against using the PCD cutting edges which were soldered onto the base body. Allegedly, the PCD cutting edges would come lose during milling and endanger both man and machine. Dieter Claus, our chief engineer, felt compelled to initiate an inspection at the test center of the German Trade Association for wood machining tools, even before the start of LIGNA. The inspection certificates (BG Test and BG Form) clearly confirmed the tool quality and safe use of our diamond tools.
after examination, a diamond profile milling cutter was marked “BG-FORM” back then – today “BG-TEST”
Presence at trade shows
At this trade show, LACH-SPEZIAL presented diamond end mills with axial angle cutting edges as a world novelty; this progress had been made possible by the further advancement of the LACH sharpening technology. Worldwide the continued success of LACHSPEZIAL-WERKZEUGE was noted in technical press publications, including in the USA.
Among other highlights, EMO 1981 in Hanover featured advanced CBN Borazon™ grinding wheels for tool grinding, featuring the “tressex® bond” with its superior feed performance.
A trade show report in MM-Maschinenmarkt 87/1981 was especially interesting to me. Besides reporting on LACH diamond cutting edges, attached directly to the base body, the article mentioned “regarding traditional, clamped cutting edges… another option is to solder the PCD blanks directly into the milling body. A comprehensive portfolio of such tools was presented by Jakob Lach GmbH, Hanau … “. This is especially noteworthy because monoblock compact milling tools were introduced as novelties at trade shows in the 1990’s; this also was precededby the development of soldered diamond milling tools for cutting wood and plastics, respectively composite materials.
What the press wrote
What made me especially happy, was the great interest in our drebojet® milldressing rolls for the dressing of traditional grinding wheels, first presented at EMO. I quote from a first mention as state of the art technology in the magazine “Fachberichte für Metallbearbeitung” (Technical Reports for Metal Machining), issue 11-12/1981: “EMO ’81 – world novelty – drebojet® diamond mill-dressing roll – the new technology for diamond profile dressing of grinding wheels in series production: LACH DIAMANT – Europe’s no. 1 in processing polycrystalline synthetic diamonds – presented at EMO ’81, partnering with Abawerk GmbH, Aschaffenburg, the world novelty drebojet® for profile milldressing of grinding wheels in series production.”
presentation of the first axial angle PCD end mill
– example Z = 16 with cool injection and chip breaker for aluminum machining in series production.
Traditional diamond dressing rolls, tipped with natural or synthetic diamonds, manufactured according to different procedures, in a number of different precision levels; however, they all have one thing in common: independent of geometries, their form is always closed, not interrupted. This is different for drebojet®, dressing becomes a milling process. For this reason LACH DIAMANT calls drebojet® a diamond mill-dressing roll. Polycrystalline synthetic diamonds, proven superior to all other hard materials in all areas of machining – turning, milling, shaping, drilling – of aluminum, plastics, and even wood and stone, reinforced this new dressing technology. Much like during milling, the “chip chambers” between the single teeth allow for a maximal cut into the grinding wheel, and therefore provide an excellent chip removal.
The excellent performance of the drebojet® mill-dressing roll during the dressing procedure is clearly shown by a subsequent visual inspection of the grinding wheel dressed/profiled in such a way: the milled abrasive bodies stay absolutely stable for the next grinding process (i.e. are not crushed), unlike with traditional dressing methods.
The result is equally shown by an extended interval from one dressing to the next; the grinding wheel’s operating time is prolonged. A polycrystalline diamond cutting edge offers yet another technological novelty: by adjusting the cutting speed of the diamond mill-dressing roll, it is possible to determine the actual surface roughness of the drebojet®-dressed grinding wheel.
Installing automatic controls in future drebojet® dressing processes will maximize the dressing efficiency in series dressing of grinding wheels. Even international technical publications covered this novelty with enthusiasm. Understandably, our competitors and other manufacturers of diamond rolls took note of this new technology, first introduced by LACH DIAMANT and now patented.
Among other interested license holders the Japanese diamond tool manufacturer Asahi Diamond also contacted us. The following negotiations with Arihisa Tanaka, president of Asahi Diamond, were accompanied by Mr. Kato, our patent attorney in Tokyo; thanks to his legal assistance both a license and a know-how contract were drafted which allowed the use and production of a PCD-tipped diamond mill-dressing roll according to LACH patents. On March 23rd, 1982, both contracts were approved by president Arihisa Tanaka and Horst Lach.
The time is now
After license and know-how sales to Israel and Japan – both being extremely successful business deals – we asked ourselves when to reunite all our outsourced business units. All requirements for this great project had been met. Both companies, Jakob Lach GmbH & Co. KG and especially LACH-SPEZIALWERKZEUGE GMBH, up-and-coming due to the rapid development and spread of diamond tools for all wood and composite materials, were at stand by with their resources.
We were able to acquire a yet undeveloped property with 24,000 m2 in the new industrial area in North Hanau. The first phase of construction included a large hall for the natural diamond grinding shop, plus a production facility for polycrystalline diamond and CBN tools as well as for the production of diamond and CBN grinding wheels – including a big cafeteria with a kitchen. A stand-alone administrative building for sales and accounting, both bursting at the seams at their current location, was to follow shortly thereafter. Inauguration and move-in were planned for the spring of 1984.
Development work pays off
I do not necessarily want to call it a “gold rush” spirit that had seized us during the years from 1981 to 1982; however, this expression captures the atmosphere quite well. All of us, including the sales employees outside, were caught by this “motivational wave”. Our versatile development work of the last decade payed off.
It had an exemplary start in 1969 with the production of (Borazon®) CBN grinding wheels; followed by the first presentation of PCD dreborid® cutting tools in 1973, and the subsequent introduction of polycrystalline dreborid®-G CBN tools in 1974/75. In 1977, another premiere presentation of rotating PCD tools, e.g. mills for edge cutting, scorers and saws for fiberglass materials used in the production of circuit boards, and of course in 1979, after the discovery of spark erosion (e.g. LACH EDG procedure) it lead to a sort of “industrial revolution” in the mass producing wood and furniture industry, as well as in the aluminum-processing automobile industry and its suppliers.
From today’s perspective (2024) it would have even further implications. In short, the “LACH companies” were prospering. New employees were hired. New ideas and thoughts could be entertained and developed further. The success of the license and know-how sales had somehow created a specialized new sales department; immediately, we became more international. Requests from abroad multiplied. There was an interest in external representation. Negotiations had to be conducted.
“LACH Diamant, executive secretariat, Stein-Junkuhn”
The project “new building Donaustrasse” demanded full attention, besides the increasing tool business. Help came on January 2nd, 1982, in the person of a young woman named Rita Stein-Junkuhn. Her work place – at that time still in the administrative section at Bruchköbeler Landstrasse – was equipped with the latest automated writing device called “Teletex”. For the first time it was possible to digitally send texts and letters with “Teletex”, provided the recipient had a compatible device.
Originally, “Teletex” was meant to replace the so-called tele typewriter (with perforated tape), but then the “Teletex” service was discontinued at the beginning of the 1990’s. Afterwards fax machines and the emerging data technology, meaning computers, were to dominate daily office routines more and more. With “Teletex” as instant communication device or via serial letters we could now get in contact with interested license and know-how prospects all over the world.
“The executive secretariat under Ms. Stein-Junkuhn became an institution of its own at LACH until she retired after over 40 years as my personal assistant.”
Yes, now the international business really got started. The next milestone achievement for the further development of LACH DIAMANT enterprises up to the 100-year anniversary in 2022, had something to do with an advertisement in “THE WALL STREET JOURNAL” on July 15th, 1982. More on this in the next article – part 10 of “100 Years LACH DIAMANT” by
Horst Lach
