Since its launch in 1955, Finishing Aids has specialised in supplying a full programme of surface finishing abrasive products for a wide range of industries from Aerospace and Automotive Engineering through to Woodworking, Glass Processing and Jewellery.
Finaids Production Plant
Our abrasive production plant – located in our Bury factory – contains state-of-the-art equipment designed for fast, accurate and specialised manufacture of a wide range of high-quality products.
The first operation every day is to cut down jumbo rolls of paper, cloth and 3M Scotchbrite™ into production sizes to facilitate the operation of the rest of the machinery. These materials are first slit into widths required for wide belts; other jumbos are cut down into rolls suitable for the production of narrow belts (200mm and 300mm wide) or for discs, sheets and rolls in varying widths according to the dimensions of the finished product.
At the start of the process to manufacture narrow belts, automatic NC controlled cut-to-length machinery ensures rapid cutting of any bulk order to optimise efficiency and productivity. These orders are then fed into our automatic edge treatment machines, where the process of joining the production widths of belts begins. After resin glue application and semi-drying, Kevlar tape is applied and the two ends joined together (known as a ‘butt joint’) before pressing.
Wide paper and cloth belts orders are optimised from jumbo rolls depending on the widths involved in order to minimise material wastage. Wide paper belts for woodworking must have negative tolerance overlap joints to ensure ‘bump-free’ finish, whereas wide cloth belts are joined using the specialist Kevlar jointing tapes. Wide and narrow belts, sheets, discs and rolls in standard paper and cloth coated abrasives, surface conditioning materials (3M Scotchbrite™) and exotic ceramic products are produced on a daily basis with the goal of offering prompt service and excellent value for money.
Recent investment in modern processing machinery has seen the extension of the FINAIDS programme of abrasive products with a new range of FINWEB high quality aluminous oxide and zirconium oxide lap mops. Made from high quality non-woven material homogeneously impregnated with abrasive grit, these products are manufactured in a wide range of diameters and laps in three main qualities – P80 (coarse), P120 (medium) and P320 (fine). Designed for use on portable machines as well as backstand equipment using tapered spindles, they adapt easily to difficult workpiece profiles in stainless and mild steel, as well as non-ferrous metals. They are ideal for finishing, graining and cleaning of all metal surfaces where a high degree of flexibility is required.
Our goal always is to offer our customers the best available products at the most competitive prices without sacrificing any of our quality standards. Added to this our response speed in emergency situations – for example same day manufacture – is of vital importance in a highly competitive industrial world.
Simply select you application from the menu to view our product range, or contact us if you require additional technical information, quotations or samples.