Herzogenaurach, July 2009. The surprise was literally
written all over Dieter Grasme’s face when he was presented the GTS Ring
of Honour during the Annual General Meeting – the special GTS award for
thermal spray celebrities. The executive manager Peter Heinrich and his
fellow members on the GTS Executive Board managed to keep their decision
secret right up until they conferred the award at the beginning of the
Gala Evening. After all, nobody wanted Dieter Grasme, chairman of the
GTS QM Committee and member of the Executive Board, to get wind of the
award beforehand. His wife Linda was also in the picture since she had
to find out her husband’s ring size. And this she did without arousing
Dieter’s suspicions.
With his tremendous commitment and dedication, Dieter
Grasme has rendered outstanding services to thermal spraying and to GTS,
and has made a decisive contribution to the further development of this
technology in Germany and also beyond its borders.
This all began at the ITSC in Montreal in 1986 when a
small group of so-called "new blood sprayers", to whom Dieter Grasme
belonged, joined forces around Prof. Lugscheider and started developing
new ideas and approaches. They launched a new era of "National Spray
Conferences" which began with the TS 90 in Essen in 1990 and has been
successfully continued to the present day in the form of the ITSCs. From
the very outset, Dieter Grasme has contributed his competence and ideas.
Furthermore, he has always championed the cause of the practitioners in
our ranks and their language of communication without neglecting the
more scientific aspects of the technology. The organization of the
well-received and highly frequented industrial forums at the European
ITSCs is just one example which particularly stands out here.
Dieter Grasme was one of the first to recognize the
potential which GTS has to offer thermal spray technology, and also the
economic benefits GTS can provide its members. Without hesitating, he
introduced GTS certification into his company, OBZ GmbH, where the
implementation of statutory guidelines and regulations has been
exemplary. Dieter Grasme has utilized his key and influential position
as the chairman of the GTS Quality Committee to generously impart his
experience to other GTS members. He recognized trends well in time and,
also as a member of the GTS Executive Board, helped GTS to chart its
successful path.
After studying to become a chemical engineer and
doing his military training, Dieter Grasme began his career by
investigating spray coatings in the research institute at ALUSUISSE in
1975. He then joined Aluminium Rheinfelden GmbH in 1976 and was
responsible for setting up and managing a coating business before
changing to UTP Schweisstechnik GmbH in Bad Krozingen in 1992 where he
took over the management of the application technology centre for
thermal spray coatings. With the two brothers Jörg and Ingo Dresel, he
then founded OBZ Dresel & Grasme GmbH in Bad Krozingen in 1997, a
company which is now a world leader in the field of thermal spraying. In
his newfound position as entrepreneur, he was also prepared to break new
ground and take a certain financial risk in order to launch new
technologies and advance the thermal spray cause.
Dieter Grasme, who is now 61 years old, decided to retire in 2008. We
are sure (and we very much hope) he will not leave us completely, but
will continue to pass on his experience to the thermal spray scene
where, with his calm manner and professional credibility, he is held in
very high esteem.