As with many tooling manufacturers, ITC used to do most of its business through
standard or catalogue issue cutting tools. However the increasing complexity of work
has seen its special tooling business grow rapidly.
Investing for growth
Investment in new plant at
ITC is enabling the
company to maintain
service levels and
guarantee product
quality
march 2008
‘THE UK manufacturing sector has changed beyond
recognition over the last ten years and the aerospace,
medical, automotive and F1 industries have introduced
more complex component designs and increasingly
difficult to machine materials’ says ITC Sales Director Roy
Talbot. ‘For our customers this has meant the introduction
of high end machine tools and specialised cutting tools.’ He
reckons up to 50% of ITC’s business is now for special
tooling delivered on a rapid response basis.
Adapting whilst maintaining service levels has meant
changes for ITC, and the company has invested. New staff
include two more on the shopfloor, one in despatch and an
extra sales engineer. Stores are now on two levels, with a lift
to move goods between floors and improved access for
delivery vans. Additional stock can be accommodated, in
particular customers’ specials and Hanita and Metal
Removal cutting tools. New plant acquisitions include two
Rollomatic 620 cylindrical grinders (with another due), an
additional Anca and a Walter Helitronic tool grinder -
making ITC Walter’s largest UK customer with eight
machines. The latest Walter will meet demand for highprecision
drill and reamer regrinds for the aerospace sector.
Talbot continues: ‘As any business grows capacity can
become a burning issue. If you only operate one machine
and acquire a second, you instantly increase capacity by 50%
but if you have 10 machines and buy another, you increase
it by only 10% - and this is our predicament. When we
order a machine it may take up to 6 months to arrive; by
this point we usually need more.’
The new machines fulfil a number of needs, explains
Technical Director Peter Graves: ‘The Rollomatic P4
blanking machine will load blanks up to 300mm long (the
current machine can only load considerably shorter blanks)
- essential to cater for new orders from Airbus. Our Walter
machines are fast to set up, ideal for our increasing demand
for special cutters in the batch region from 1 to 5 off.’ This
trend also drove ITC to invest in its Anca machines, as these
tool & cutter grinding
have cameras on board to check the form of the tools.
With these machines ITC can deliver cutters to accuracy
within 5microns, and their speed and accuracy is
complemented by the added consistency the Heli
Toolcheck has brought to quality control. This is enabling
ITC to extend its successful supply relationship with
customers such as Airbus and Rolls-Royce, to whom a
variety of power generation form tools, drills and reamers,
for example, are supplied; manufacturing certification
and traceability are essential. ‘The Helitronic Power
effectively restores tooling back to original geometry,
and the Toolcheck allows us to illustrate that’ comments
Graves. ‘Customers such as Rolls-Royce demand a certificate
of conformity not only for each tool but for every form and
feature on every tool. The Helicheck delivers this service to
every customer.’
He highlights how Walter’s ‘ancillary’ technologies play
a beneficial role; for example, a previously-installed
Helitronic Power tool grinder was supplied complete with
a production loader to accommodate and randomly process
280 tools of up 32mm diameter and 220mm long. This is in
addition to ITC’s use of five other auto loading systems on
Walter machines and therefore extends the company’s
commitment to lights-out, unmanned production and
complements the seven day shift operators who manage
the total portfolio of 17 tool grinders.
Walter Cyber Grinding tool grinding software is also
important. Designed to offer savings in cutting tool design
and production by allowing non-standard new tools to be
designed and ‘manufactured’ off-line, it eliminates timeconsuming
and costly prototypes, test batch work and
interruptions to production. ‘Customers increasingly want
cost-effective, high-quality tooling delivered promptly and
backed up by a high level of problem-solving technical
engineering expertise in extremely short delivery times’
comments Roy Talbot. ‘We make sure we are in a position
to respond, hence our continual investment.’
Special cutter business now accounts for 50% of turnover.
Says Graves: ‘Our technical representatives can help end
users with cutter application problems and with our UK
manufacturing facility, we can respond to customer
demands extremely quickly.The type of work we conduct
and cutters we produce either cannot be manufactured by
our competitors or we find that they cannot meet the fast
turnaround demands of the end user.’
Notwithstanding investment levels over the last 18
months, Peter Graves believes the attitude and work ethos
of employees are critical. ‘The incredible commitment of
our staff makes ITC an easy company to do business with’
he concludes.
www.itc-ltd.co.uk
www.walter-machines.com
MWP
73
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