Syntec Diamond Tools a key player in the industry for over 25 years

Published 2/12, 2020 at 15:02

Australia’s largest diamond tool manufacturer, Syntec Diamond Tools, has been developing, manufacturing and supplying the latest designs and innovative products for over 25 year. The company now offers a wide range of diamond saw blades, core bits and surface preparation tools.

Syntec owners Paul Freer and Dennis Clift have always been proud of their Australian heritage and pride themselves on manufacturing their goods locally. In 2016 Syntec was certified with the Australian Made logo. “Not only are the superior quality of our raw materials and Australian workmanship verified with this, but it is also a lot easier for the consumer to identify our brand’s authenticity and build trust,” says Paul. “Many companies outsource their manufacturing to cheaper countries to cut costs, we, however, believe that quality should always be the number one priority and so it is important to us to actually oversee the production process and ensure our high standards are being met each day.”

“My business partner, Dennis, and I, have both been working in the diamond tool business for over 40 years now and many of our customers are astounded by how competitive our pricing still is even though we have stuck to our guns and kept the manufacturing in Australia, right where we grew up.” 

Besides its 26,000m2 manufacturing site and offices in South Australia, the company also runs a full service facility and office in California. Exporting diamond tools globally, Syntec’s directors made the decision early in the company history to open an office in the Northern Hemisphere to allow the better serving of customers. Paul explains, “Our customer base in the US was growing and growing and Southern California seemed like the perfect spot. We are now able to provide excellent customer service from two opposing time zones. This was important to us as we work closely with customers to identify their needs. With each product, our goal is to add performance and value to our customers - all our diamond tools are manufactured with job applications in mind.”

Syntec’s product designers and the technical team find out specifically what is required and manufacture custom made products for most applications. US sales manager Jason Root gives an example, “Over the past few years, an increasing number of customers have been requesting softer and softer bond tooling to grind extremely hard concrete. This concrete is typically hard trowelled, making it very smooth, and typically finished with various water or solvent based curing agents, which can cause diamonds to heat up, glaze over and stop grinding after only 15mins.”

“During the curing process, the curing agents form a membrane over the top of the concrete slab which stops the water near the surface of the slab from evaporating too quickly; the idea is to reduce cracking and increase the strength of the concrete cap. The chemistry of these curing agents is increasingly improving, making that top layer of the concrete harder and therefore causing serious problems for contractors who have bid on a job to grind this type of floor but then very quickly realise that their diamonds have stopped grinding.” 

Initially, segments are ‘dressed’, meaning the individual diamond crystals in the segment are exposed. These diamonds are locked in place by a metal alloy, the so-called bond, and over time the diamonds fracture or are pulled out of the bond and as the bond wears away it exposes new diamonds, making the choice of bond highly important. “After coming into contact with an extremely hard surface, diamonds can gradually lose their cutting edge,” Jason points out. “If the metal bond around them is too hard, it will not wear away fast enough and the tooling is no longer productive. When that is the case, contractors usually try to mist water, throw some sand down, add weight or change the rpm. These, however, are typically not the proper fix.”

“Getting a softer bond diamond can help but it seemed we kept getting requests for softer and softer bond tooling up to the point where the bonds were so soft the diamond actually would have pushed back into the segment and no longer produced. Our metallurgist was presented with this issue in the industry and moved quickly to develop a new revolutionary bond which now is incorporated in our so-called ‘Rapida’ segments. Rapida segments are specifically made for these types of grinding applications, allowing for powerful grinding of even the hardest concrete and are available on a variety of different grinding shoes to fit any machine on the market.”

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