“1984”
“When I held my first diamond in my hand in 1908, I would not have imagined that one day diamonds would not only be used in the automobile industry but also for the machining of wood and plastics”.
Jakob Lach, the company founder, said this on camera in 1980. It would become the preface for the first presentation of a new technique for machining wood and plastics – using diamonds as cutting material – the Dia Tool. This video, with audio translated into multiple languages, has lost none of its relevance for the choice of appropriate tools within the furniture, flooring and composite industries.
As I look at the figure “1984” written down in front of me, I realize that, in relation to the year 2024, forty years have passed since then.
In literature, “1984” is a classic, first published under this title by George Orwell in 1949 (famous quote: “Big brother is watching you”) and adapted into a film, 35 years later, starring the renowned actor Richard Burton, with its premiere in 1984. However, Burton passed away before the premiere date.
For the computer industry the year 1984 marked a revolutionary event. A device with a graphical user interface, enabling the use of both mouse and keyboard: the Apple Macintosh, which, through its user-friendly interface, allowed people even without significant technological knowledge, access to the digital world. In the same year the first CD player for the mass market was introduced, which would also inspire an entire industry dedicated to music consumption.
journal of hp tooling
This article was published by hp tooling (issue #2 | 2025) as part 12 of the 100 Years LACH DIAMANT series.
journal of hp tooling
This article was published by hp tooling (issue #2 | 2025) as part 12 of the 100 Years LACH DIAMANT series.
And what happened at Lach Diamant that year?
The year 1984 was supposed to be the big year. Finally there was the opportunity to unite the scattered production sites with the administration at a new company location. The existing capacities were about to burst at the seams. The newly established company LACH-SPEZIALWERKZEUGE GMBH, which had started manufacturing Dia tools for the wood industry since LIGNA 1979, added additional pressure to the situation. In autumn 1982 construction began on the virgin land in Hanau, Donaustraße, for the new administrative and production facilities. On September 13, 1983 – the 89th birthday of Jakob Lach – the topping-out ceremony of the administrative building was celebrated.
The move of the diamond and CBN grinding wheel production and polycrystalline cutting tools was scheduled for the period from November 8-19, 1983. On a Saturday, December 9, the grinding shop for polycrystalline diamond tools reported “ready for grinding”!
The daily events were overwhelming. New employees were sought and hired. The move of the administration and natural diamond grinding from Bruchköbeler Landstraße had to be prepared.
High order volumes were stretching the capacities of all production areas. Everything had to move quickly now. By mid-April 1984 the sales departments, accounting and invoicing could finally move into the new administrative building at Donaustrasse in Hanau.
Jakob Lach, who, just two years earlier, had not hesitated to personally explore the developments of the various company divisions through visits, was now dependent on the help of caregivers after an unfortunate fall. However this did not stop him from sorting his beloved (natural) diamonds in his office day by day, for example, in preparation for the setting and grinding of single-point dressing tools and profile diamonds.
But just a few days after the move from Bruchköbeler Landstraße, which also encompassed his private home, his strength left him. Jakob Lach peacefully passed away on the evening of April 25, 1984.
September 13, 1983, the big day for Jakob and his son Horst Lach, on the same day the celebration of Jakob Lach’s 89th birthday and the topping-out ceremony
The breakthrough
Five years had passed since my discovery of spark erosion for machining polycrystalline cutting materials, at the end of 1978.
Like emerging from a dark tunnel a view appeared: PCD and CBN cutting materials, which until then had been used exclusively in single-cutting applications, such as cutting plates (incorrectly referred to as “indexable cutting inserts”) for turning tasks, had now the entire world of machining at their disposal. Reinforced as milling tools with soldered diamonds, it was then possible to replace “estimated” carbide cutting edges in terms of both service life and cost-effectiveness with the new “compact” tools.
The first users were mid-sized furniture manufacturers as well as wood and plastic processors, who were able to immediately benefit from up to 350 times longer service life compared to carbide tools, with the newly developed numerically controlled wood processing machines, leading to success and profit. The breakthrough in the serial manufacturing metal and automotive industry was expected to occur later, at the end of the 1980’s.
Since early 1982, I had been documenting daily events in a sort of business diary, and even today I can trace back that exciting and thrilling time as a constant journey of discovery. I find an entry from July 15, 1984, which I had titled “Legend.”
Even today this is a record that reflects the state of technology from that time, and I would like to share it with you as a reader:
July 15, 1984 – excerpt from the business diary of Horst Lach
“Since 1973 LACH has been processing polycrystalline synthetic diamonds. At Hanover Fair in 1973 LACH first presented polycrystalline turning tools for turning aluminum, brass, copper and plastics. A year later, in 1974, LACH demonstrated milling with polycrystalline diamonds on examples of aluminum, duroplastics, fiberglass and plexiglass. 1975 was the year of the first presentation of a polycrystalline cubic boron nitride turning tool for machining hardened high-alloy steel (over 55 HRc) and cast iron.
In 1977, LACH presented the first diamond saw for cutting circuit board materials at Productronica in Munich.
All these developments repeatedly showed us that we were dealing with a very hard, tough material in the diamond we had chosen. We constantly sought new ways to explore.
The actual brilliant idea – literally spoken – came to me in 1978. That was the breakthrough– and it opened up the possibility of processing polycrystalline diamonds in such a way, that it could be integrated into series tool manufacturing for the first time. The founding of LACH-SPEZIAL-WERKZEUGE GMBH, at the beginning of 1979, followed as a result.
This company would soon establish itself worldwide as a pioneer and leader in the development of polycrystalline diamond tools for the wood and plastics processing industry.
The initiation of this series manufacturing was followed by a flood of patent applications that documented the know-how and superiority of my realized ideas to the world. Therefore it should come as no surprise that these ideas also led to new solutions in the process of diamond processing. LACH SPEZIAL diamond tools were to be made as quickly and precisely as possible – and all of it automatically. This vision inevitably led – parallel to the development of the diamond tools – to the development of our own machinery.
The result of over ten years of experience in the production of polycrystalline diamond tools, combined with five years of special machine development for the production of these tools, is now available as the third generation of machines. These machines, under the series designation M 900, have been so thoroughly tested and refined that we are now pleased to offer this combination of precise German machine tool engineering and modern electronics to our licensees around the world.
Patents for this technological development have been filed worldwide. The buyer of these machines will, with the purchase of this machine, simultaneously acquire the licensed right to manufacture diamond tools based on this patented invention.”
Pioneering work
Soon the machines of the third generation were followed by the fourth, fifth and so on.
The know-how developed during the construction of these machines is now available to today’s users, the manufacturers of diamond tools for the wood and plastics industry, both for production and for the sharpening of these diamond tools. The successful model »Dia-2200-mini« is even available for service operations.
Such successes are only achived by teamwork – persistent, without self-doubt – even if the goal seems crazy – this is how pioneering work is done. Many developments and patent applications from the 1980’s testify to this. Polycrystalline diamond tools were quickly indispensable in the production of the furniture, wood, laminate, flooring and plastics industries due to their cost-effectiveness.
From numerical carriers (NC) came computer-controlled commands (CNC), making machines faster and more precise.
Changes were felt in all areas of life and work. I only need to think of the space shortage before our move to Donaustraße. For example: we had to outsource part of accounting and bookkeeping into containers in the parking lot of Bruchköbeler Landstraße.
The continuously increasing sales demanded their price. Every outgoing invoice had to be manually typed by a dedicated team and recorded individually.
Or examples from production: technical draftsmen had to create construction and dimensional drawings for the further processing steps at their respective workbenches on their “boards”. Finished workpieces were laboriously engraved in a special department on “engraving machines” (with the Storch nail system); today this can be done in seconds with laser technology.
Ultimately, it’s the human being
Without really realizing it we all benefited from this “magic” in the 1980’s and 1990’s – documents could suddenly be sent from one place to another over long distances. Personal communication devices were virtually placed in our hands to communicate with others, no matter where they were – and vice versa.
But above all it is the person – in the present sense, the employee, who takes up ideas and ultimately realizes them with pioneering spirit.
When I think back to this time – the early 1980’s – some names come to mind, names of people who contributed to the success of LACH DIAMANT in big and small things (without claim to completeness):
Dipl.-Ing. Günter Hobohm, Rita Stein-Junkuhn, Dieter Claus, Konrad Wagner, Bernd Troyke, Gerhard Mai, Konrad Stibitz, Joachim und Andreas Weber, Kurt Hemerka, Gerd Gottschalk, Edgar Schneider, Martina Titze-Watolla, Wolfgang Huck, Heinz Beyer, Willi Dressbach, Konrad Fuchs, Ernst Hayn, Andreas Hesse, Gerhard Iffland, Georg Hessberger, Marina Schütte-Lottig, Mathias Lottig, Armin Staub, Elfriede Werner, Walter Reichert, Wilhelm Reusswig, Alexander Bart, Wolfgang Gärtner, Günther Pallischeck, Hans-Werner Giese, Rolf Hasselbach, Julius Schröder, Herbert Wießner.
The impressions and experiences from this time, which are also reflected in my business diaries, are so immense and extensive that they would exceed the scope of the article series “100 years of LACH DIAMANT”.
For my wife Margot and me those days were filled with many trips across the USA – partly to win customers for licenses and partly to adjust the “raw material of polycrystalline diamond” to our ideas and growing needs in discussions with the then manufacturer General Electric, Worthington/Ohio.
This was successful – not only did the size of the PCD blanks grow from an initial 0 3.4 mm to 0 54 mm, but due to the now-increased quantities purchased, the price of the PCD blanks was significantly reduced, contributing to further acceptance of diamond tools.
The image of the pioneer LACH DIAMANT for metal and wood processing was spread at international trade fairs in Germany, Italy, the USA, China and Singapore in those days.
However it wasn’t just the diamond tools that were in the focus of interest – it was also the EDG (Electrical Discharge Grinding) machines developed by LACH DIAMANT, which, for example, made it possible to sharpen the developed polycrystalline diamond tools.
For illustration I have selected photos from international trade fair presentations from the 1980’s for you. In the next article we will share a delightful speech given by a Saxon during our 100th anniversary celebration, which describes his first, not-so-easy journey from Saxony to Hanau. Stay tuned for that.
Yours, Horst Lach
