Original Polishing Pads

I certainly don't know if you could claim that every theft is wrong, but I'll prove to you that every theft is forbidden, by simply locking you up...by....Karel Capek.

The last article of mine about Polishing pads manufacturing was that I displayed a picture of one part of the factory where how these products were made. However,it was not my liberty to show everything as these machines and techniques were company secret.

Some months back in third quarter of 2012,  our market was plaque with "Immitation" pads. These "Immitators" were trying to copy our "Spiderpads". How foolish, how absurd !. 

It took us years and much painstaking in designing these "Spider Pads". Obviously, spiderman was of no help at all. Look at the pictures below. The copies were not only disgusting but purely a product of "cheat".

 

Copies or Replica, however one wants to call it. A Cheat is a Cheat!

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Dear Customers,

To imitate someone is to pay the person a genuine compliment – often unintended. 

The fact that people are copying our pad designs shows us that, once again, we have 

developed outstanding and innovative pads that will give an added value to our 

customers all around the world.

One point that really bothers and disappoints me is that the replica pads are offered 

at a pretty low price. Therefore, we have analysed the pads in our lab to see the difference 

and of course to get an idea about the durability.

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After comparing the copies with our high quality pads we know the reason for the 
low price: It’s the poor quality of the pads! The pads look very similar to our pads, but on 
closer inspection, huge technical differences are apparent: One layer which is used in 
the pirated Spider Pad is far too hard, and the other layer is way too soft. The cutting 
performance is much poorer and the pad can be killed easily, and also very quickly, during 
heavy-duty applications.

The pirated Spider Pad perforation is far too deep. As soon as you start polishing, the compound 
will be soaked in the deep slots, diminishing its performance. Additionally, it is impossible to remove 
scratches as the foam loses its stability. It is like trying to remove deep scratches with a soft foam pad.
As if that isn’t enough, the velour is not applied correctly. As a result, it detaches pretty quickly if the 
backup-pad gets hot or if the pad is used with an orbital tool.

There are further points that have to be improved to compete with original Scholl-Quality. These three
reasons above are easy to reproduce and to understand. Anyone who compares the two pads under 
the same circumstances will come to the same conclusion.

My comment:
   --> While testing the pads we have quickly noticed that the durability of the copies is approximately 
half or a third of that of our original Spider Pads. Customers buying the replica need to know 
that and will see it immediately after using them. If the copied pads are used with our rubbing 
compounds, the performance of our premium polishes will suffer.

The cut is much lower as the pads performance is not as aggressive to the paint as our 
original Spider Pad. Also, the powder is not working in the same way – it is impossible to generate 
the same gloss rate. Even if the copies look similar to Scholl Concepts pads, the polishing result 
is totally different. It is not a working system anymore and therefore the overall performance and 
the finish-quality will suffer! This is the good reason why our pads are sold at a higher price compared 
to the pads of some of our competitors. Our outstanding quality and quality-driven philosophy 
justifies our pricing level – our development is not finished until our products are perfect!

We manufacture up to 6,000 pads a day for a variety of customers (car plants, bodyshops, boat yards, 
detailers, etc). Everyone using original Scholl-Pads understands why the price-performance ratio 
is more than fair.

I would like to thank all of our loyal customers for consistently using our products and we will continue to work 
on new, more fascinating and inspiring pads and polishes every day.

One well-meant piece of advice to all manufacturers who are trying to copy us: Do not stop at 40% 
and do not stop at 70% - if you copy us, then do it the right way and go for 100%!
In the meantime, we will continue to invest in our intelligent team and new machines to develop 
the exciting next generation of “Spider Pad” that is soon to be launched.

It is the innovation that drives us and the motivation to offer the best solutions for paint finish applications. 


Frank Scholl