Nice finish: news and products from the surface preparation sector

News and products from the surface preparation sector, including significant developments at two of the big names of the business, Kunzle & Tasin and SPE. IRN reports.

Kunzle & Tasin and Bona strike alliance

Two of the world leaders in wood sanding and preparation are joining forces with a sales and manufacturing alliance.

Kunzle & Tasin, the Italian specialist in sanding tools, and Bona AB, the Swedish sanding and floor preparation company, agreed a partnership earlier this year that will see K&T produce Bona machines in Italy and both companies selling the combined ranges worldwide.

Under the alliance, Kunzle & Tasin will offer a broader, combined range of Bona and K&T machines, while Bona will also sell the full range through its global organisation.

The partnership means that Bona will close its production facility in Sweden and transfer production to Kunzle & Tasin’s facility in Cinisello Balsamo, north of Milan.

In a joint statement, Kerstin Lindell, president and CEO at Bona and Alberto Biffignandi, president of Biffignandi SpA (which owns Kunzle & Tasin), said; “We will have the advantage of using the joint competences of both companies to develop machines that satisfy the specific needs and requirements of our customers, as our companies have strengths that complement each other”.

K&T was founded in Italy in 1946 and since 2010 it has been owned by Biffignandi SpA. Bona AB, located in Malmö, Sweden, is a large, family-owned company that provides equipment for the installation, maintenance and renovation of wooden floors.

HTC grinders tested on Swedish roads

Swedish grinding equipment manufacturer HTC is working with Sweden’s road research body to determine if HTC’s technology could reduce tyre noise and rolling resistance on worn out roads.

The effect of grinding HTC says a pilot project showed that grinding the road surface could reduce noise (inside the vehicle and out) and also lessen the rolling resistance “to a considerable extent”.

The manufacturer and partners VTI (Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute), Linköping University, the Swedish Transport Administration, Svevia and Projektengagemang in Stockholm, are now carrying out a fuller study, which is expected to be completed in late 2015.

HTC says uneven road surfaces generate negative effects in the form of noise and increased rolling resistance, which leads to increased fuel consumption. Another undesirable effect of worn road surfaces is the increase in respirable particles.

The pilot project on one of Sweden's most used roads, the E4, showed that grinding the road surface reduced noise by 2.2 dB(A) and reduced the rolling resistance by 4-7%, resulting in a reduction in fuel consumption of 2%.

"At HTC, we see the application of HTC's tried and tested grinding technology to surfaces other than stone and concrete floors as very exciting”, says Per Sandström, HTC’s business area manager, “HTC has been developing this technology for many years and we hope this project will confirm what we believe; our method increases travel comfort as well as saving both the environment and the taxes spent on repairing the infrastructure; our roads, in this instance."

The company estimates that the grinding method could lengthen the service life of the road surface by 20 to 50%. Grinding is a relatively fast process and it can be done either across the entire roadway or just along parts of it.

The project has been given the name ‘Via Futura’ and has received a SEK4 million (€0.46 million) grant from Mistra Innovation, which funds environmental and sustainability projects linking small and medium sized companies with academic research bodies.

Bartell Morrison acquires SPE

Canadian concreting specialist Bartell Morrison acquired SPE Group (Surface Preparation Equipment) in the UK during the summer. Bartell said brand names and product lines will stay the same, with new products being planned.

John Hill, SPE group managing director, said; “The coupling of the SPE product range, along with those of Bartell will result in a partnership that will add strength, expertise in design and growth for all products. More strategic global coverage is already being phased in with the addition of SPE Global Ltd. and SPE North America Ltd. which will mirror the UK processes already in place."

John Locke, president of Bartell Morrison, said "The SPE Group adds an excellent element of vertical integration for both companies. SPE will strengthen Bartell's presence while Bartell will give SPE a strong foothold in the North American surface preparation market.”

Since the acquisition, both Tony Mansfield, the founder and former chairman, and Paul Mansfield, sales director, have left the company.

Bartell markets walk behind power trowels, ride-on power trowels, vibratory plate compactors, surface preparation machines, cut-off saws, diamond blades, Morrison screeds, sprayers, spreaders and internal eccentric vibrators.

One of the new surface preparation products being planned for early 2014 is the DFG 460TM triple head planetary floor grinder, which has been developed to provide a medium sized product that grinds to a polished finish using orbital grinder technology.

SPE says the DFG 460 allows the operator to grind medium to large areas to a fine finish, eliminating swirl marks that can be left by conventional grinding methods. The DFG460 has single speed options for general surface preparation tasks in 110 V/ 220 V single phase, and 380 V/415 V in three phase versions.

WerkMaster moves HQ

After six years in its North Vancouver location, Canadian surface preparation company WerkMaster has moved to the east of the city to a much larger facility in Burnaby. The company said the location will expand production capacity to meet growing worldwide demand for its floor care equipment and maintenance products.

“Our product distribution has grown significantly since leading companies like Braxton-Bragg, Global Industrial and Home Depot.com are now selling WerkMaster's products," said Brian Wilson, president of WerkMaster.

"A select number of Home Depot Tool Rental stores in Toronto and Vancouver are now renting the Scarab, Termite XT and Viper XT for concrete surface preparation, leveling and flattening concrete, polishing concrete, refinishing wood decks and hardwood floors.”

WerkMaster makes concrete polishing and surface preparation equipment, stone, terrazzo, VCT and vinyl restoration and refinishing equipment and hardwood floor sanding machines.

CAPTION STORY

Blastrac’s new BMP-4000 ride-on sawing and milling machine is “ideally suited for large milling and sawing applications, for example road construction and industrial flooring”, says the company. Launched in April this year, the BMP-444 is a multifunction unit, with a change of the hydraulic motor allowing the user to swap the milling and the sawing drum. In sawing mode the unit can cut, remove and saw concrete, asphalt and natural stone to a depth of up to 60 mm. Using the milling function, it can remove 65 mm in several passes. Working widths are 400 mm (milling) and 380 mm (sawing) and the unit weighs 1550 kg.

CAPTION STORY

EDCO has redesigned its two concrete floor grinders, with new slide-on accessories removing the need to use wooden wedges. The new holding cases will accept the Dyma-Serts, PCDyma-Serts and Strip-Serts grinding accessories for a variety of different surfaces, with no tools required to install the accessories. The system is available on the electric powered 2EC-NG-1.5 model and the petrol/gasoline 2GC-NG-11H version.