Walter Investment Delivers Growth for ITC

With the manufacturing sector exiting the recession, Industrial Tooling Corp (ITC) has positioned itself well for growth with an investment in four new grinding centres throughout 2011.

The Tamworth based manufacturer made this significant investment on the back of overwhelmingly increasing demand for its innovative new cutting tools. ITC has committed extensive resources to the development of new products through 2010 and 2011 and the result of the new innovations has led to extensive investment to meet the market demands for its new products.

In 2011, ITC has acquired a Walter Mini Power, two Helitronic Micro machines and a Helitronic Power, the latest machine scheduled for delivery in November. As a company intent on remaining at the forefront of technology, ITC was the recipient of the UK's first Helitronic Micro machine in January 2011.

The two Helitronic Micro machines follow the January installation of the Walter Helitronic Mini Power CNC grinding centre. ITC’s new Helitronic Micro machines are providing additional capacity for the manufacturing and re-grinding of high precision carbide and HSS cutting tools as well as high specification drills and reamers in the 0.5 to 12.7mm diameter range.

The new Micro machines incorporate linear drives that enable them to meet a linear accuracy of 0.0001mm and a resolution accuracy of 0.0001degrees. This improved accuracy has proven a major benefit to ITC, as Production Manager Mr Kevin Ford comments: “We bought the Micro machine to firstly meet a capacity demand for our cutting tools as our small tool production was a bottleneck. Secondly, it was bought to enhance the quality of our products. The linear drives provide increased accuracy and stability that enhance surface finishes on the tools. The improved accuracy and surface finish further benefit the tool life, accuracy and surface finishes provided by the cutting tools we produce on the machine. This has immediately proven beneficial to our customers.”

Running batches of 500 to 800 cutters on the new Micro machines, ITC utilises a Fanuc 6-axis robot system for loading the tools to the work envelope. This introduction has cut loading times by almost 50% compared to ITC's alternate grinding centres.

The Mini Power machine installed in January was a replacement for the UK's first Mini Power machine that was installed at ITC in 1998. “The fact that we have replaced ‘like with like’ is an indication that we were very happy with the performance of the original machine for grinding a range of tools, especially one to three-off bespoke specials – a service we excel at,” says ITC’s Production Manager Kevin Ford.

With X, Y and Z axes travels of 350 mm, 200 mm and 470 mm, respectively, the Fanuc 310i-controlled Helitronic Mini Power boasts linear and radial resolutions of 0.0001mm and 0.000degrees respectively, and can handle tools from 1mm to 100mm diameter and up to 255mm long.

For larger cutting tools, the November installation of the Walter Helitronic Power will provide ITC with additional capacity. Capable of processing tools up to 320mm diameter by 350 mm long, the 11.5kW drive machine has a rapid traverse of 15 m/min over the 460mm in X, 320mm in Y and 660mm in Z-axis travel. Focusing upon automation, ITC has specified another 6-axis Fanuc robot loading system for the new grinding centre.

Commenting on the machine tool investments, ITC's Managing Director Mr Peter Graves comments: "We have been delighted with the service and quality of the Walter machine tools we have acquired over the years. With increasing demand for our cutting tools, our business has evolved to embrace automation that has served our capacity demands very well. This has enhanced the quality, accuracy and performance of our cutting tools whilst ensuring we can provide standard and special products with remarkable turn-around times. As a UK manufacturer that can produce high quality standard and special cutters with rapid delivery times to customers exact specifications, we are in a unique and enviable position compared to our competitors. These elements are underpinning our growth and we are intent on building upon this through 2012."