To the brink of what is technically feasible – and sometimes beyond

At the forefront of WINTERTHUR’s company strategy is innovation – the means of securing the company’s future. WTG works tirelessly at developing new products to solidify its market position and expand into new markets. Currently, WINTERTHUR ploughs 5% of its turnover back into research and development, and its efforts are paying off. In fiscal 2007, nearly a quarter of the sales revenues achieved in sintered products originated from products designed in the last three years. In addition, a fifth of the insert machining tools sold in 2008 were products developed in the previous four years. In the same year, a single newly developed CBN grinding wheel family with vitrified bond accounted for an eighth of the turnover for that segment. Besides the economic success, countless patents, design copyrights and awards for innovation testify to WTG’s inventiveness.

Modern grinding technology, the last and decisive stage in the attainment of perfect surfaces, is the key area of concentration in technological development efforts and includes grinding wheels, dressing tools and machinery. Besides serving to optimise processes, workflows and the actual work times, most innovations are a quick response to new materials.

The currently rapidly advancing development of hybrid materials, such as cermet and combinations of metal and synthetic resin requires suitable grinding solutions. At the beginning of 2009, WTG was already able to provide selected customers with a bond combination of ceramic and polycondensates. The new grinding wheels permit significantly higher working speeds and perform brilliantly. This is an example of how closely WTG engineers actively follow industry developments and how they are able to anticipate the emergence of new material innovations, meeting their appearance on the market with just the right grinding equipment.

Three prime stimuli fuel WTC’s inventive drive:

  • Customer-specific requirements, such as the ever-present need for higher machining efficiency
  • Parallel research in the area of new materials and machining technologies
  • An irresistible desire to find solutions and an inventive spirit that regularly churn out innovations, such as the basic development of fully new abrasives

To support the engineers in their innovative endeavours, WTC has significantly expanded its research and development departments, adding technical and personnel resources in Meerbusch, Västervik, Villach and Royersford. Some of the additions include scanning electron microscopes (SEM) for the optical analysis of nanoscale features of grinding surfaces and bonds, differential thermal analysis (DTA) equipment, dilameters for the measuring of volume changes caused by temperature fluctuation, laser diffractometers for the analysis of particle sizes as well as physical and chemical equipment for load tests, innovative software solutions and elaborate testing equipment for new machine designs. Moreover, WTC’s engineering teams work closely with prestigious international research institutes.

The enormous advances in recent years in materials and the demand for increased efficiency and precision have often pushed grinding to the edge of what is technically feasible. However, on the other hand, without the impetuses and solutions provided by grinding technologies, many of the industrial techniques and products that are possible today simply would not have been conceivable. In the end, it is unimportant who drives whom. Decisive are the right answers to essential questions.


And WINTERTHUR TECHNOLOGY AG has an awful lot of answers thanks to the creativity and the intrepidity of its personnel when it comes to venturing out onto new terrain. Norbert Lamers, delegated officer of the Board of Directors, describes the innovative spirit of the employees: “…When the word problem, or still better, its superlative “impossible” is uttered, that’s when we begin to take notice. The reason for our continuous success is solely attributable to the fact that we are constantly teetering on the brink of what is technically difficult, even impossible.