The company has built an enviable reputation as the UK’s premiere round tool specialist and this position has been achieved by its ability to produce HSS or solid carbide tooling as one-off specials or in large batch quantities. ITC holds over 100,000 tools on the shelf ready for immediate despatch and this is backed up by its ability provide a fast modification and re-grind service. Having this remarkable diversity to deliver tools with the exact specifications and outstanding performance to the end user has noted rapid turnaround industries such as the aerospace and motorsport sectors becoming major customers of ITC.

Building its market position has demanded investment in highly skilled staff, high specification machine tools and market leading metrology equipment to guarantee conformity to customers’ tight specification demands. As ITC’s Technical Director, Mr Peter Graves comments: “Our rate of growth has seen us introduce 6 new machine tools in the last three years. To accommodate the new machines we have expanded the site and moved and increased the size of our stores to meet the growing demand.”

“Our production facility now has 8 Walter CNC grinders with the arrival of number nine imminent. We are now Walter’s largest UK customer and we have also acquired two Walter Helitronic tool check systems – the only UK tooling manufacturer to acquire two systems. The latest toolcheck is the first of the newest model to be installed in the UK and this gives us on-tool accuracy equal or beyond anything else manufactured in the country.” 

The introduction of the second Helitronic is down to the increased production at ITC and commitment to deliver quality second to none. However, the installation was brought about by the growing demand for traceability and conformity to demanding specifications. The aerospace, motorsport and medical industries are more frequently specifying components of increasing complexity and this brings with it the need for more specialised tooling. Form tools produced to the stringent demands of the end user are now the norm at ITC. To instil customer confidence in its products, ITC has invested in the state-of-the-art Helitronics’ to provide conformity certificates for all special cutters.

For the manufacture of cutters in anything from small quantities to batches upwards of a 1,000+, ITC has introduced two Rollomatic P4 CNC grinders and two GrindSmart 620XS machines for grinding its blanks and producing the flutes and forms respectively. The Rollomatic machines are capable of meeting +/- 1micron tolerance levels and are ideal for the production of smaller tools from 1 to 16mm diameter. As ITC’s Production Manager Mr Kevin Ford comments: “The Rollomatics have proven excellent acquisitions, they have removed bottlenecks in our production process and given us improved accuracy, consistency and production output. The machines have improved lights-out capability and productivity and that enables us to be competitively priced with superior quality.”

However, the production of standard and special cutters is only an element of the ITC business. The Tamworth based manufacturer is also the UK agent for Hanita and Metal Removal cutting tools with both manufacturers contributing considerably to ITC’s UK activities. Part of the Kennametal group, the Israeli manufactured Hanita carbide end mills have proven a significant success among mould & die and motorsport manufacturers. Whilst the US manufactured Metal Removal tools are specified for a variety of applications.

With ITC stocking over 100,000 standard products that are a culmination of its internally produced cutters, Hanita and Metal Removal tools; the company is well positioned to meet the ‘same day’ delivery deadlines it places on standard stocked products with a vast selection of cutters to meet the needs of just about any application.

Going a step further, ITC also offers a re-grind service for customers. The re-grind service collects cutters from customers and returns them in an ‘as-new’ condition. The CNC grinding centres at ITC are programmed with the customers’ initial specification, so tools are re-ground to the same new condition. In instances where cutters are coated the tools are reground and coated to deliver the end user a tool in an ‘as-new’ condition. This continually expanding element of the ITC business is the reason behind the acquisition of the latest Walter CNC grinder. The imminent delivery of the Walter machine will give ITC increased capacity for the re-grind service and also enable the company to reduce lead times for the popular service that will soon have four of ITC’s 16 CNC grinders dedicated to the re-grind service.

Looking to the future development of the company, Mr Graves concludes: “In terms of employee skill-set and machine tool technology, we are literally at the cutting edge. As the business has developed, the challenge for us has become the mid to longer term future. Currently we can order a machine to accommodate our growing capacity and by the time it arrives we have already outgrown the available capacity the additional machine provides. So we now have to be very strategic about our decisions and look at ordering two or more machines at a time – and making sure they are the right machines for our business.”