Klingspor Abrasives

Klingspor Abrasives, Inc. of Hickory, North Carolina, is a manufacturer of coated abrasives (commonly known as sandpaper) and bonded abrasives (commonly known as grinding wheels or grinding discs) to the United States industrial market. It is a part of the international abrasives manufacturer Klingspor AG and is one of almost 40 Klingspor manufacturing and distribution facilities located around the world.

US History

In October 1979 the company opened under the direction of Christoph Klingspor, in a small leased facility in Hickory, North Carolina with less than 20 people. It was at the time, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Haiger, Germany-based manufacturer C. Klingspor GmbH. Larger facilities and warehouses were added in subsequent years. The company now has manufacturing facilities in Hickory, North Carolina, and Tijuana, Mexico

In 1997, the company achieved international standard for quality management - ISO 9002 (now called ISO 9001-2000).

Abrasive innovations

The parent company is responsible for some early innovations in the development of abrasive products:

Waterproof abrasive paper

In 1925 Carl Klingspor received the patent for waterproof abrasive paper for the newly growing US automobile manufacturing market.

By 1950, The company had developed the first cut-off wheels and grinding discs for high-speed use (80 meters/second). For this Carl Klingspor was awarded the Gold Diesel Medal from The Deutsche Erfinderverband e.V. (German Inventors’ Association) in 1961.

Flapwheels

Abrasive flapwheels were patented by the company in 1954 , and it designed and developed the abrasive flap disc in 1972.

Many abrasive manufacturers now have a version of these popular abrasive tools.