When in 1922 Jakob Lach founded the eponymous enterprise as a company for cutting diamonds to brilliants he could not have imagined that one day this enterprise with the name of LACH DIAMANT would be synonymous for a pioneer worldwide for the development and manufacturing of diamond tools.
Here the direction was set early: Away from the jewelry diamond towards the industrial diamond and to the diamond tool.
In the mid thirties, by a barter transaction, Jakob Lach acquired industrial grade diamonds. To promote the sales of those diamonds he founded the company „Deutsche Industrie-Diamant-Vertrieb Jakob Lach”, (German Industrial Diamond Distribution Jakob Lach) which was active with its own sales force until the start of Worldwar II operating in the German machine building triangle Leipzig – Magdeburg – Chemnitz now Hesse and the Saar Region.
Well-known companies such as Junkers Motorenbau, Dessau, Carl Zeiss, Jena, AEG, BMW, Waldrich, Opel, Rüsselsheim, Kugelfischer, Schweinfurt, Index-Werke, Esslingen among others belonged to his circle of customers at that time.
Up to the outbreak of Worldwar II 600 diamond cutters were employed of which 300 worked in their own establishments in Hanau and surroundings and 300 in operations along the Kinzigtal, in the Odenwald, in the Pfalz (Palatine) all the way to Idar-Oberstein.
During the postwar period and due to the new strong D-Mark the jewelry diamond cutting trade collapsed in Hanau and all over Germany.
In the mid fifties, Mr. Jakob Lach, now already 60 years old, revitalized the business branch of industrial diamonds, diamonds as a tool. On October 1, 1960 his son, Horst Lach who had just finished his studies in business management was asked to assist his father for the implementation under the present name of LACH DIAMANT.
The world of diamonds and further innovations for new materials for the industry were in an upheaval.
The first man-made synthetic diamond by General Electric in 1957 was a source for imagination and possibilities, which up till now have not been all exploited.
In fast motion many developments and technologies took place which quickened the application of the diamond as a precise working material and helped to make possible the first Sputnik and space travel, the present aviation, automobile and communication technology, house and road construction and furniture industry, just to mention a few: Diamonds have changed our lives.
LACH DIAMANT, seen globally, participated to a large degree in this development.
In the following is a list of the most important highlights:
1973 – the first presentation worldwide of PCD tools at the Hannover Fair – polycrystalline synthetic diamond (PCD) made available by General Electric for the first time.
1977 – at the 1st Productronica in Munich LACH DIAMANT demonstrated as a world first the cutting, milling, scoring of glass fibre reinforced material for printed circuit boards.
1978 – discovery of spark erosion for the machining and forming of PCD, which made possible the economic manufacturing of rotating PCD tools, such as milling cutters, saws, drills for the wood and plastic industry.
For LACH DIAMANT, by the way, this was the start to build the so called EDG (EDG = Electrical Discharge Grinding) rotation grinding machines for use in their own fabrication and the marketing of know-how transfer.
Without the discovery of this new technology the following quick development leaps in the furniture, plastic, wood industry, all the way to the GRP – CFRP machining for the aerospace industry and the building of wind power plants would not have been possible.
The same holds true for the automobile industry for the presentation of ever more fuel efficient and environmentally safe engines and drives, a success achieved by the precision of diamond machining of light metals, e.g. aluminium.
LACH DIAMANT tools, presently in its 90th year after the company founding by Mr. Jakob Lach, are manufactured by more than 150 employees at company headquarters in Hanau and the branch in Lichtenau near Chemnitz as well as independently made for the US market by LACH DIAMOND INC. in Grand Rapids, Michigan USA.
LACH DIAMANT is still a family enterprise managed by Chief Executive Officer Horst Lach and his son Dipl.-Ing. Robert Lach.
In preparation for the next trade shows, AMB in Stuttgart (18.-22.09.2012) and the Composites Europe in Düsseldorf (9.-11.10.2012) Horst Lach commented as follows:
„Through our new development »Cool Injection« we have succeeded to bring the media cooling to a crucial point and with it made the diamond even harder. Now we can tackle the machining of steel, cast iron and even titanium with PCD.
