The Fabricon Group, which is based in Ashton-under-Lyne, reports excellent results after the introduction of cutting tools from Tamworth-based ITC (www.itc-ltd.co.uk) in response to problems — chatter and poor surface finish — when machining extruded aluminium box-ways for a well-known manufacturer of stair-lifts.

Production manager Ryan Bushdyhan says: “We tried numerous tools with indifferent results. Then the ITC representative offered us his company’s 2041 series, and the results have been outstanding.”

Fabricon next trialled Widia VDS drills (also supplied by ITC) on black steel bar strips that are part of the stair-lift rail system, and it found that the 7.4mm-diameter pre-thread holes (6mm deep) were drilled with remarkable ease — so much so that a single drill has produced over 22,000 holes.

“The tool life of the VDS drills (pictured) is staggering, especially as we plunge-drill at a rate of 1m/min. We haven’t broken a drill yet; the quality of the drills means that they are always changed through wear as opposed to breakages. The confidence that we take from the performance of these drills is of great reassurance to our machine shop staff.”

Following the success of the 2041 series plus Widia VDS drills and VariTaps, Fabricon asked ITC for a specially designed T-slot cutter (pictured), which was manufactured in Tamworth.

“We ordered five cutters to produce 30,000 T-slots in 606 aluminium, but we did the whole job with just two of them. We have tried numerous tooling vendors down the years, but the ITC range has been nothing short of phenomenal. Our tool life, consistency, component quality and productivity rates have all improved significantly.”