VERSATILITY IS THE KEY
17 November 2004 - ITC Tooling

Drawing upon 30 years of experience, Tufflay of Woking has built an enviable
reputation within the subcontracting industry. However, in the last twelve
months the company has come under new management. The new ownership has seen Tufflay employ new working practices, methodologies and above all
investment.

This emphasis on technology and investment now enables Tufflay to
successfully compete in the aerospace, motor sport, electrical and the
military sectors. Part of the new investment has been three new machine
tools. To further optimise performance, maximise machine utilisation and
reduce cost and production times further, Tufflay has invested in ITC
Tooling.

Working in its particular industries, Tufflay uses an increasingly high
amount of aluminium. To machine this, the company uses the 2041, 2051 and
2052 range of aluminium cutters from ITC. All three series of cutter are
used in diameters from 4 to 20mm for a multitude of tasks.

Tufflay Director Russell Tschumi says: 'Working with a considerable amount
of aluminium we had to look at some very high quality cutters, hence the use
of ITC. The tooling has given us so many performance benefits and reduced
costs to such an extent we will not look at the competition and just use the
ITC range.'

The glowing endorsement of the aluminium cutters follows a 25-30% reduction
of tooling inventory, set-up times, machine downtime and costs. The cutters
have also improved surface finishes. All this has become possible through
the key feature of the cutters, the geometries and the relieved shank on the
2051 series.

Production engineering manager, Peter Foskett comments: 'The shank is
reduced all the way down the length of the cutter giving us a variable range
of cutting protrusion, whereas other manufacturers are restricted to a
certain length. Other tooling manufacturers offer reduce shank tooling as
specials, which results in our machine shop waiting on the tooling supplier.
ITC has a complete range from the shelf as standard, which enables us to
manufacture efficiently without waiting for modified tools.'

ITC's Technical Representative Dave Cleeve supports this: 'The cutters can
be held out as long or as short as the customer wants, which is why Tufflay
keep them in stock. Whatever job comes in, the tools can be used
immediately.'

This ability to use the cutters for numerous operations has vastly reduced
tooling stock at Tufflay, specifically special cutters. Another contributing
factor to stock reduction is the ability of ITC cutters to perform roughing
and finishing tasks.

Foskett continues: 'Using one cutter for both operations cuts set-up time
dramatically. We would normally require a ripper to rough and then an end
mill for finishing. The ITC cutters enable us to do both operations with one
tool. This was recently demonstrated when the high helix 2041 was
successfully introduced to a chassis component.'

This ability to rough and finish with one tool is credit to the rigidity of
the tooling. The short flute supported by a solid carbide shank provides
total rigidity. This excellent rigidity allows the cutter to perform
extremely well at high speeds and feeds. At Tufflay, a typical roughing
cutter of 16mm diameter runs at 10,000rpm with a feed of 3200mm/min and ½
diameter depths of cut with a cutter protrusion of approximately 74mm.

Foskett continues: 'The speeds and feeds are ideal for us. Most
manufacturers do not state suitable speeds and feeds for the 'real world'.
The ITC recommendations work really well and the technical support we have
is excellent.'

The success with aluminium cutters has seen Tufflay introduce the ITC Cyber
Range of multi flute cutters to particular titanium components for the Motor
Sport industry. The company is currently testing new innovations from ITC.

ITC's continual innovations and exceptional customer understanding are
drivers behind the company's research into launching a new cutter. Designed
with a shallower 40 degree helix to meet customer specific requirements for
machining thin web sections, the cutter will be ideal for the aerospace
sector.

http://www.itc-ltd.co.uk

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