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Dronco has subsidiaries in Marktredwitz (also in Bavaria) as well as in France and Sweden in addition to the UK. The company currently employs an overall staff of 350. Unlike many participants in today’s tool industry, Dronco is a genuine manufacturer and does everything “from soup to nuts” as our American cousins say.
With three major product ranges, Dronco is at the forefront of the industry. Its specialisms are Cutting disks, Flap discs and Diamond blades. The growth in demand for these products from Dronco since 1998 has been simply phenomenal! Being highly specialized in the manufacture of these products, it is no surprise to anyone familiar with Dronco's products that research and development is a major factor in creating such a successful end product.
Dronco was first established in 1962 and was already a well established and respected company when it was taken under the control of a dynamic new Chief Executive, Herman Broeker, in 1998. Since then the company has gone from strength to strength, with production output, product range and market share increasing drastically. Managed by his stepson Stefan Vollmers,, the company has invested vast amounts of money in recent years to ensure its continued growth and the quality of its service
Touring the Cutting disk plant in Wunsiedel was a real eye opener. It was a total contrast to the labour intensive almost “Dickensian” conditions I saw when I visited a now defunct UK based manufacturer.
The plant is incredibly clean and highly automated with tremendous attention to manufacturing efficiency and organisation.
Many of the machines have been built by the designers and technicians who are employed by Dronco to lead the way in state of the art technology.
One intriguing aspect was the use of a “train” to deliver materials and semi finished components to each stage of the manufacturing process.
Dronco starts its cutting disk production from a very basic materials so that every aspect is fully controlled to ensure the utmost final quality of finished goods.
Dronco's products are divided into three lines; Perfect, Special and Evolution.
The Perfect products are universal products made to craftsman standard and are Dronco's best seller. Evolution products are at the universal, high end of Dronco's offering delivering the top quality for the highest demands. Special line products are designed for craft and industry and deliver a long life product, which is both effective and economical. This range includes the high performance Inox discs.
Dronco’s expertise in supplying diamond blades also comes from having “in house” technology and production expertise. This facility is located at it nearby facility in Marktredwitz. Dronco’s Diamond blade production is also state of the art.
At the beginning of my tour I was shown a jar full of synthetic diamonds typical of those used in the manufacturing process.. They were surprisingly heavy and obviously highly valuable and such precious raw materials are kept in a safe for security before being used in diamond blade production.
The first step in the production of diamond bladed is to mix the diamonds with a a unique blend of metal powders using a centrifuge so that the diamonds are mixed and “glued” together to form tiny spheres of mixed material which is the basis for the sintering process.
This powder is loaded into a series moulds which are shaped like the segments that can readily be seen on every diamond blade.
Each segment is individually pressed under a force of 50 Bar (About 50 times atmospheric pressure) . this results in a segment with the consistency and brittleness of a typical confectionary biscuit, in other words at this stage the segment has virtually no toughness at all, this comes later. Once the segments are in the right shape, they are packed into an insulated fixture and heated to a temperature of between 850 and 1050 degrees C which complete the sintering process and vastly increases toughness
One particularly interesting aspect of the segment making process is that the top or cutting face has diamonds in the mix, the inner edge which will eventually be laser welded doesn’t.
This is to facilitate welding because the diamond –rich material is not weldable to the required joining strength.
Once the segments are cooled the inner radius is precisely ground to match the outer edge of the carrier disk ready to be laser welded. The laser welding process is carried out in two stages with initial tack welding to fix the segments in position followed by the complete laser welding attachment to the requisite strength.
One all segments are attached, the disk manufacturing process is finished off by putting it in a special machine to remove some of the metal substrate to expose the diamonds which actually do the cutting when the disk is used.
It is Dronco’s company policy to retain the full diamond blade making capability in house as this enables the company’s personnel to specify fully any out of company manufacturing arrangements and to make quality control protocols as rigorous as they need to be for the highest quality supplies to industry.
As part of the tour of the diamond blade facility I was shown some of the rigorous quality control processes for testing the hardness and toughness of the synthetic diamonds. In this test an increasing force is applied to individual diamonds and a precise measure is taken of the force used to crush the individual diamond. A statistical analysis is then used to meet Dronco’s exacting quality control procedures.
Dronco produces discs and abrasives for every requirement, providing the user with a comprehensive choice that ensures the ideal product for the job; safe in the knowledge it has been manufactured to the highest standards for safety and continuity of performance. Dronco only sells through its distribution channels ensuring the best service for all its customers.
At its German base the company is able to ensure work is carried out by highly qualified employees. It has also been able to prove that is still possible to produce cost effective high quality and competitive products in Germany.
The company applies the same standards to providing custom made products for customers and to producing private label, which make up 50% of its cutting and grinding wheels, 30% of the flap discs and also 30% of the diamond blades.
Dronco's flexible set up also means it is able to take on smaller production runs for specials.
Dronco places the highest value on producing safe products, and all the company's product complies with the highest safety standards.
Standard Product
EN 12413 Cutting and grinding discs
EN13743 Flap Discs
EN 13236 Diamond Tools
The company also complies with:
E DIN ISO 13942,603-16,6103,69134 for measurement, tolerance and imbalance.
BGV D 12, the German regulations on accident prevention.
Dronco is also a member of oSa, the organization for the safety of abrasives.
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