3M Abrasives Customer Story - LAG Trailers

"3M™ Cubitron™ 3 sanding materials have greatly reduced my work time."
Mario Lemmens, precast machine operator, LAG Trailers

The company

The LAG Group, headquartered at LAG Trailers in Bree, Belgium, specializes in providing reliable, innovative and modularly built road transport equipment for the European tank and intermodal transport industry. The carefully constructed tanks, mainly made of aluminum and stainless steel (SS), are manufactured entirely on site in Bree, from sheet to finished product. As a dynamic organization, LAG strives to be one of the top three tank truck and intermodal transport equipment manufacturers in Europe. Sustainability, efficiency and quality are central to this goal.

The challenge

"The construction of tank trailers consists of quite a few meters of weld seam that must be completely removed on the inside before it can be finished. Until now, the removal of welds was done with lamellar discs," said Gareth Bonell, Supervisor Manufacturing Engineering at LAG Trailers. He continues: "This process actually took too long, the result was not always flat and the amount of discs required per workpiece was significant and created a constant waste stream."

The solution

Having previously switched with satisfaction to 3M Cubitron™ II flap discs because of their faster performance and longer service life, an intensive period of collaboration with a 3M sanding and grinding specialist began. A careful analysis of the production process was carried out, suggesting that the flat grinding of welds on aluminum be addressed with one of 3M's latest Cubitron™ 3 products. Gareth Bonell, Supervisor of Manufacturing Engineering said, "We are always open to innovations that improve and/or accelerate the overall manufacturing process, so we gladly accepted the challenge. The fact that we could speed up 35% with a single modification and reduce the waste of used discs by several dozen percent was something we didn't see coming. 3M provided a safe and efficient transition."

_{Mario Lemmens: "I have been working at LAG since November 1997. So with 28 years of experience in the tank head department, I can safely say that I know what the production requirements for tank heads have to meet. Over the past 5 - 6 years, we have seen the introduction of new abrasive materials that have improved productivity and efficiency. The new Cubitron 3 materials go even one step further."}

_{Yarne Janssen: "I have been working at LAG since April 2023, and from the beginning I have been involved in the production of the tank heads. Sanding and grinding these heads is an essential part of the process. Since the introduction of 3M Cubitron products, we have noticed a marked improvement in the efficiency of the sanding and grinding work. We need to apply less force and let the Cubitron materials do the work. In addition, the durability of the abrasive material has improved. Cubitron 3-fiber discs last longer and therefore need to be replaced less often."}

Further information at: www.3M.com/Cubitron3