When Redditch-based Pinstructure first opened in 1982, the business was little more than an ‘industrial shack’ producing clevis pins and dowels.

However, investment in sliding-head turning centres from Tornos has helped the company to enter new market segments, introduce new products and fulfil the potential of its current 28,000ft2 factory.

It now manufactures and distributes keys, pins, clamps, fixings, springs, circlips, dowels and washers of all types in a large variety of sizes and materials.

Pinstructure invested in a second-hand sliding-head turning centre in the late 1990s, and when that machine was approaching the end of its service life (almost 10 years ago), the company investigated the options for a replacement and chose the Delta 20/4 turning centre from Tornos UK (www.tornos.com).

Technical director Mr Mathew Tracey said: “We felt that Tornos stood head and shoulders above the rest; the quality, capability and value for money were the perfect match for what we needed.

“We got our guys trained on the Tornos, and we were instantly flying. The machine was initially used for machining dowels and taper pins in quantities from 100-off up to 10,000.

“We then started to produce Clevis pins of all sizes, and the machine gave us the facility to offer our own product ranges.

“When we were looking for a second sliding-head machine, we went straight to Tornos.

“We wanted something that offered a quick and easy platform for programming and setting like the Tornos Delta 20/4 with interchangeable tooling and collet configurations.

“The arrival of the Tornos CT20 in 2018 gave us the absolute flexibility to make very small batch sizes, while also giving us the option to select the most suitable Tornos machine for each individual job.

“As a business, we have grown by an average of 10% year-on-year for the last five to six years, and the Tornos Delta has played a considerable role in this growth and diversification.

“What the CT20 has done is protect our company from losing business, while also winning new business from Europe, India and Asia.

“This influx of new work is the result of us being able to offer more-competitive prices and significantly shorter lead times than overseas businesses.”