It is rare to find two companies that are ‘fishing in the same pond’ and openly sharing premises, but that is the situation in Irvine, Scotland, where sub-contractor i-Tek Engineering — a specialist machinist for the oil and gas sector — has moved in with the already well established company Fastnet Developments Ltd.
Founded in August 2011 by Mark Mclean, a former service director for one of Scotland’s leading machine tool agents, i-Tek Engineering is developing a reputation for high-quality machining. Initially, the company was simply a provider of freelance service and support for machine tools; however, it was always Mr Mclean’s ambition to offer a sub-contract machining service.
Realising this ambition began with the installation of a Yamazaki Mazak Integrex multi-tasking machine, which was soon followed by a vertical machining centre. These initial investments in high-performance machining technology underlined i-Tek’s commitment to invest in the best equipment from the outset. Shortly after the arrival of these machines, the company took on its first employee — a setter/operator to run them. It has since installed its third machine, a turning centre. This expansion is being driven by increased demand from the oil and gas sector for precision machining.
Mr McLean says: “It has long been an ambition to run my own sub-contract business, and my exposure to the oil and gas sector through my previous job provided me with the contacts and the confidence to make that step-change. The first six months were spent preparing the groundwork, and now that the three machines are in place, we are starting to see the fruits of our labours.”
Stroke of luck
One of the biggest issues for new manufacturing businesses is finding suitable premises, and here Mr Mclean had a stroke of luck. His best friend, Adam Cairns, offered to let him share premises with Fastnet, which provides a wide range of services, including product design for clients ranging from the Ministry of Defence to the Scottish Football Association. Fastnet also has a thriving manufacturing facility, making products as varied as disabled-access systems for taxis and high-speed warp-and-weft knitting machines — plus a variety of products for the oil and gas sector.
Robert Cairns, Fastnet’s founder and managing director, is the driving force behind the development side of the business; he focuses on designing products that are lighter and stronger. One such product came about after the illness of a close friend. “A very good fishing friend was diagnosed with cancer and had to have muscle removed from his left-hand side. While he continued to go fishing, he had difficulty landing his catch, so I developed a perfectly balanced, lightweight yet very strong net that could land a trout up to 12lb in weight without much exertion.
“This design led to other things, and I was challenged to come up with the design for a net that weighed less than 1kg but could land a 30lb-plus salmon. The final product weighed just 780gm and could land fish over 40lb; it was the start of Fastnet Sports.”
Keeping cool
While Robert Cairns concentrates on designing and developing products, his son Adam runs the machine shop; and ensuring that this operates at optimum efficiency even extends to his choice of metal-working fluids. Blaser Swisslube — represented in the UK by Jemtech (UK) Ltd
(www.jemtech.co.uk) — is the supplier of choice; i-Tek has also switched coolants and is also using Blaser’s Blasocut BC25MD.
“When it comes to metal-cutting fluids, the Blaser product is certainly not the cheapest on the market,” says Mr Mclean. “However, while the price is important — especially to a start-up business like mine — if the benefits of a product outweigh the price differential, the cost becomes irrelevant.
"My experience from working in a wide variety of machine shops in my previous role showed me that, while there is a wide range of metal-cutting fluids available, a high proportion of the people I dealt with — including Fastnet — were using Blaser fluids because they provided improvements in tool life, component quality and the general working environment.”
Blaser’s BC25MD, as used by i-Tek, is a water-miscible chlorine-free mineral-oil-based cutting fluid that contains special additives; it is suitable for non-ferrous materials, as well as cast iron and steel. Craig Wieland, Jemtech’s sales manager in Scotland, says: “BC25MD not only provides i-Tek and Fastnet with exceptional tool life and component surface quality, but its lack of bactericides and EP additives makes it a very mild formulation and, as a result, provides extremely good human-skin compatibility.”