VIDEO: TOOLING UP – 3M™ Cubitron™ 3: Abrasives That Won’t Wear You Down

Narrator: This video is brought to you by 3M and their new 3M™ Cubitron™ 3 Abrasives. If you're looking for real world insights, tips from leading industry experts, the latest trends in products and technology, you've come to the right place. From MSC Industrial Supply, this is Tooling Up.

TONI NEARY: Hello and welcome to Tooling Up. I'm your host, Toni Neary, and I'm so glad that you're here with us today. Before we get to today's guests, we're going to pause for a second so all of our newcomers can go ahead and click the like and subscribe buttons that way you’ll be sure to get the very latest news and content like today's sneak peak on the latest from 3M.

Okay. Everyone subscribed? Good. Today I'm excited to be talking with Mike Eggert. Mike is the Senior Manager of Marketing Excellence in 3M's Abrasive Systems Division. And Mike's going to be giving us the inside scoop on the brand spanking new Cubitron 3 abrasive products. Mike, thank you so much for joining us today, and welcome to Tooling Up.

MIKE EGGERT: Thanks, Toni. It's a pleasure to be here.

TONI NEARY: All right. So we are going to be talking about some really cool technology, some really cool advancements. But before we do that, how did you end up at 3M?

MIKE EGGERT: Well, the short answer is I grew up with the company. My father worked in 3M Abrasives from 1959 to 1993. And so we always had a lot of sandpaper. We lived on a farm. I worked on machinery, refinishing, we did woodworking projects. So I was familiar with some of the processes, some of the technology. The neat thing about it is I met a lot of people.

I met the sales reps that worked with my father and they were incredible people and I always found them very inspiring. I worked in the 3M warehouse my summer after high school long, long ago and later on, much later on, I actually had a career, which was fantastic.

TONI NEARY: I love how your journey ended with you back at 3M. And I mean, 3M is a household name. Everybody knows Post-it notes. They're all over my desk, every array of color, every single size. But the company was actually founded on abrasives, right?

MIKE EGGERT: It was, yes. Back in 1902, up in Two Harbors they were mining corundum for coated abrasives. And like many things that if that first you don't succeed, try, try again. They weren't discouraged when the first time what they had wasn't marketable. But later on they became a coated abrasive manufacturer. Our first two orders were in the woodworking industry, actually a toy company and a furniture company.

And the entire company has grown from that foundation in coated abrasives.

TONI NEARY: Absolutely. It's such an iconic company. And when you look at the fact that you've been solving customers’ problems with advanced science and technology for so long, really diligently upholding 3M's history, the legacy and really the quality of products that you've come to expect. So it's really no surprise that 3M’s, you know, on the cutting edge, pardon my pun, of abrasives.

Go ahead and tell me a little bit more about some of the Cubitron 3 and the advancements that you're making there.

MIKE EGGERT: There is a lot of technology that goes into that. Similarly with the portable bonded products, where you've got a three-dimensional matrix of resin and mineral. There are big leaps forward in that technology as well, which allows the wheel to hold on to the mineral longer and allows the mineral to do more cutting before it finally erodes away.

TONI NEARY: And is it true that it can actually increase performance by up to 60%? That seems like a really high number.

MIKE EGGERT: It's a big number, but in some instances, absolutely. And there are a lot of factors that go into that. Some of it is even in the packaging of our cut off wheels. They're packaged in a type of packaging that protects it from environmental changes so that when it arrives at the customer and it's opened up, it's fresh, it's ready to go. It hasn't been exposed to anything that might cause environmental, environmentally induced degradation. How's that?

TONI NEARY: It sounds really fancy and it sounds pretty impressive. That makes the 60% sound even better. Now, when we look at increased productivity, we look at decreased costs, which everybody's loving, right? How else can Cubitron 3 help cut, another pun there, help cut costs for companies that are using this newer and improved technology?

MIKE EGGERT: Sure. The big three factors with any abrasive product are cut life and finish. Those are others, but they're the big one. So you want your abrasive to last a long time. You didn't ask about that, but it is a big deal. Everybody wants their product to last a long time and if it does last longer, there are benefits to that.

Fewer changeovers with your equipment, it can potentially reduce your actual spend on the abrasives. But the big one is the cut rate, especially in the developed world, where shop rates are $50 to $100 an hour or even higher. You're spending a lot of money doing that job, having an operator in place, grinding a weld or imparting a bevel on a product.

If you can increase the amount of output per hour that your operator or your robot is doing, you are more productive and you are more profitable. Sharper grain helps you do just that. Longer lasting abrasives with fewer changeovers helps your equipment produce more per hour. And that is wonderful for the bottom line.

TONI NEARY: So, Mike, I think it's pretty easy to say that 3M is on the cutting edge. New technology looking at the longevity of the products that you're creating, the ergonomics for individuals, but you're also SEAM™ rated. And I think that's kind of a big deal. So can you talk a little bit about where we can find the Cubitron 3 technology and your products as well as your SEAM rating?

MIKE EGGERT: Sure. So the first one I want to go to is is fiber discs. Fiber discs are made on a you know, a heavy natural fiber backing that goes through all kinds of processes. It's very tough, very heat resistant. So when you're grinding, you do generate a lot of heat. You need a vacuum that can stand up to that.

That's why the fiber disc was invented. It holds on to that mineral and drives that mineral into the metal and allows that mineral to do what it's designed to do. It'll remove a weld in a big hurry. It'll cut a bevel in really quickly or whatever other grinding you need to do. We make it in grinding wheels. Here's the new 3M Cubitron 3 grinding wheel. And again, grinding wheels, the fiber disc kind of works like a shock absorber. You've got a backing on there with a little give to it. So when you hit vibration, it's very smooth, it's very, very quiet. But there are some applications where you need a grinding wheel and the customers who use grinding wheels, they know who they are and this grinding wheel cuts a lot faster.

It vibrates, it imparts a lot less vibration back to the operator because you don't have to push as hard and it does the job faster. So you have less time on tool. That's one of the great things about grinding wheels and then we put it in cut off wheels as well. In cut off wheels, speed and life when you have a sharp wheel, it's like having a sharp knife.

You can cut through that metal quickly. It's easier to keep that wheel on track because it's sharp, it's cutting quickly. It doesn't get as hot, it doesn't generate as much of that off putting smoky smell. It's a great product. Once you’ve used a 3M Cubitron 3 cut off wheel, you don't want other cutoff wheels anymore. So in addition to that, 3M is SEAM rated, which means our manufacturing processes meet the highest standards of quality, safety, performance and sustainability.

TONI NEARY: Mike, I can't thank you enough for your time today. It's been really informative as well as I've had some fun getting to chat with you as well.

MIKE EGGERT: Thank you so much, Toni. Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure being here with you.

TONI NEARY: It was so much fun hanging out with Mike today. And if you enjoyed our conversation as much as I did and you want to see more discussions just like this, please go ahead and click that subscribe button so you don't miss any of our upcoming episodes on the YouTube channel. To find out more about 3M’s Cubitron 3 Abrasive products, visit mscdirect.com.

See you next time on Tooling Up.

Narrator: Want more insights and ideas to improve the efficiency and productivity of your operations? Check out the MSC Tooling Up video playlist to hear tips that can take your company to the next level. And subscribe to our channel so you won't miss out.