Traditionally, tool making, was confined to small workshops or guilds where mechanics, artisans, and tool makers generally, made instruments (tools) for special purposes. Tools, have always been fabricated from materials ready to hand and usually in the one geographic location. Tool makers assembled the entire unit and distribution was limited to local markets.
The Demain angle grinder is a composite tool being designed in Australia, made in China, distributed and retailed around the globe, styled by industrial colourists, bends and flexes on demand, and uses air not as a power source but as a cooling agent.
In the past, tool makers were trained in technical colleges, mechanics institutes, trade schools, or 'on-the job'. The lathe was the principal piece of equipment and a pen-and-ink drawing conceived by a toolmaker's draughtsman were the source of basic designs from which he worked.
The Demain grinder exemplifies massive intellectual changes in the skills required to produce the item. University trained industrial designers, product engineers, material technologists, economists, marketing experts, financiers, and global strategists all combined to get the product made and sold.
The angle grinder was designed by Bayly Design for Demain International Pty Ltd. It was designed in Melbourne, Australia and manufactured in China. Australian Registered Design Number 141527.
The Demain is a new angle grinding tool that has many innovative features to improve safety, ease of use, and performance. It incorporates a unique rotating head to allow grinding at any angle and in corners, while a safe and strong position holding is maintained, a cut-out switch when the operator's back hand is removed, a safe two-step electronic start-up, and a new patented airflow system to maintain the grinding disk at the optimum cutting temperature. These features give operators of the Demain much greater safety and productivity than conventional angle-grinding tools, and ensure its success in markets around the world.
The Demain angle grinder received an Australian Design Award for Industrial Design and the Powerhouse Museum Selection in 2003. Over 100 products were entered in the 2003 Australian Design Awards and 68 of these were selected as finalists. Five judging panels (in the categories of furniture design, engineering design, industrial design, textile design, and software and electronics design) recommended 56 of the finalists for a Design Mark and 25 of these for a Design Award. The products receiving Design Awards were announced at a presentation night on 9 May 2003 at the Melbourne Town Hall. At this function, the Museum's Director (Dr. Kevin Fewster), announced the recipients of the Powerhouse Museum Selection awards for 2003. The angle grinder was one of the fourteen, fifty-six Design Mark products chosen for display at the Museum in the the 2003 Australian Design Awards exhibition.
The angle grinder also received an silver prize in the Industrial Design Excellence Award 2004 (USA). It is sold in Australia under the "Wagner" label through Bunnings Warehouses, and internationally under the 'Demain' , MACAllister, PRO or Kobalt labels.
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