SIC 3291 Abrasive Products

Contenidos

• NAICS CODE(S).
• INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT.
• ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE.
• BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT.
• CURRENT CONDITIONS.
• INDUSTRY LEADERS.
• WORKFORCE.
• RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY.
• FURTHER READING.

SIC 3291

This classification covers companies that primarily make abrasive grinding wheels of natural or synthetic materials, abrasive-coated products, and other abrasive products. Companies cutting grindstones, pulpstones, and whetstones at the quarry are classified under mining industries.

NAICS CODE(S)

332999

All Other Miscellaneous Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing

327910

Abrasive Product Manufacturing

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

In 2003 the value of abrasive product shipments was estimated at $3.8 billion, down from a peak of $4.7 billion in 1998. By the late 1990s, there were more than 400 U.S. companies in the abrasives industry, roughly half of which employed 20 or more workers.

Among the natural abrasives used in the manufacture of abrasive products are diamonds, corundum, garnet, pumice, talc, quartz, sandstone, and certain vegetable fibers. Synthetic abrasives, first invented by Edward G. Acheson in 1891, include silicon carbide (also known as Carborundum), aluminum oxide, and boron carbide. Aluminum oxide, produced from bauxite, is used to cut hard metals, while boron carbide is one of the hardest abrasives.

This industry employed about 10,700 production workers in 2003, down from 16,400 in 1990. The industry invested about the same money per production worker as other manufacturing sectors. Annual hours worked by production workers in the industry were about the same as those worked in the manufacturing sector at large.

ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE

Ranked by sales, two-thirds of the top 30 firms in the industry were subsidiaries and divisions of larger firms, while the others were private companies. Of the industry's 75 leading companies, 84 percent were private corporations. Each of the industry's top 30 companies generated more than $10 million in sales and employed 100 or more workers.

The top four types of abrasive products by product share, as of the early 1990s, were nonmetallic coated abrasive products and buffing and polishing wheels (45%); nonmetallic abrasive products, including diamond abrasives (23.7%); nonmetallic sized grains, powders, and flour abrasives (17.2%); and other nonmetallic shapes, coated or impregnated with any natural or artificial abrasive material, cloth-resin, and waterproof bond (12%).

The largest organization serving the industry is the Abrasive Engineering Society (AES), headquartered in Butler, Pennsylvania. The society was founded in 1957 and has 400 members (its name changed from the American Society for Abrasive Methods in 1975). In addition to an annual technical conference and semiannual educational seminars, AES publishes the quarterly AES Magazine, with a circulation of 3,000, and otherwise promotes the exchange of technical information about abrasive materials and their uses. The industry also is served...