Located north of Stockholm in Taby, Signcraft AB is a sign manufacturer that is celebrating its 30th year in business. The Swedish business offers a comprehensive service that ranges from company signage and displays, through to 3D scanning and vehicle decoration. For 20 years, the company has been purchasing its cutting tools from Industrial Tooling Corporation (ITC).

Recently, the company manufactured 3.4 m high stage prop ‘hands’ for the Swedish version of ‘The Voice’ TV programme. On this occasion, Signcraft AB applied a 20 mm diameter ball nose tools from ITC to cut more than 20 m3 of Styrofoam.

“We use a lot of ITC’s LG series single-flute tools for machining our plastic materials, and the STA series for machining aluminium or similar metals,” says company founder Henry Barker. “On occasions, we also use special ITC tools for machining stainless steel or other challenging materials.”

In Sweden, the government has committed a percentage of its budget for infrastructure and new buildings to creating art. One artist with a commission for a project to create sculptures for highway roundabouts approached Signcraft AB to manufacture ‘Selectric Typeballs’ from 1970’s typewriters. Standing at 2.5 m high, the spherical Selectric Typeballs was constructed from 22 cast aluminium sections measuring 1 m x 750 mm. The respective aluminium sheets were cast in a foundry, with Signcraft making the mould tools from high-density polyurethane sheets. The 3D forms were rough-machined on the company’s Kimla CNC routing machine with a 20 mm diameter ball-nose LG series tool from ITC, while finishing operations took place using a 6 mm diameter ball-nose LG series tool.

“We’ve found that the quality, tool life, quality and performance of ITC cutting tools is outstanding,” concludes Barker.

For further information
www.itc-ltd.co.uk

MSC Industrial Supply Co UK, a distributor of metalworking and MRO supplies, has announced a partnership with Colchester Machine Tool Solutions, bringing two of Colchester’s CNC machines (a Storm 1050 VMC and L65M Typhoon turning centre) to MSC’s newly launched, Midlands-based Technology Centre.

This collaboration between the businesses will offer a complete package to manufacturers, with the Technology Centre providing space for MSC to demonstrate how these highly accessible and versatile machines, when paired with the correct tooling and consumables, can drive up productivity. The team aims to create cost and/or time efficiencies using MSC’s wide portfolio of products.

For further information
www.bit.ly/3PSlKfe

Subcon 2022 will open its doors next week (7-9 June) at the Birmingham NEC. Now in its 45th year, Subcon visitors will be able to explore the opportunities available from over 200 world-class suppliers. This year, the show will once again be co-located with The Engineer Expo and Manufacturing Management Show (MMS), bringing together even more of the best suppliers, latest innovations and practical advice.

The Engineer Expo is an event dedicated to the advanced engineering community that drives manufacturing and design solutions. It provides a platform for engineers to source the latest advanced engineering technology, products and services, enabling them to optimise production and processes throughout the manufacturing cycle. MMS is also back this year, unifying everything that plants need to know about running a successful operation under one roof, including maintenance, materials handling, sustainability, skills, IT, and health and safety.

For further information www.subconshow.co.uk

Given that recovery from lockdowns was slowly gathering pace, XYZ Machine Tools was understandably happy when, in the first six months of its just-ended financial year, sales totalled £12m. This figure was encouraging and extremely pleasing.

However, better was still to come with the last six months of the year far outstripping that performance, adding a record breaking £21m to the company’s turnover, giving a total of £33m and bringing XYZ back to pre-Covid business levels.

“At the end of the six months we were happy with our sales in the first half of the year, but to set a company record for a six-month period to close out the year is a fantastic achievement and testament to the hard work and dedication shown by everyone at XYZ Machine Tools,” reports managing director Nigel Atherton.

For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com

Located in Schwabmünden, Germany, family-run subcontractor Heinz Knöpfle GmbH is taking maximum advantage of the productivity potential of automation. The company recently installed five robot load/unload systems from Halter, whose range of LoadAssistant robotic machine tending equipment is available in the UK from 1st Machine Tool Accessories.

About 16 years ago, the company acquired its first machine from Mazak, which was automated a year later with a bar feeder. Despite Heinz Knöpfle employing just five people, there are currently 22 Mazak machining centres and lathes on the shop floor.

The subcontractor’s entry into robotic automation began in 2018 when second-generation managing director Christian Knöpfle became aware of Halter during a discussion with a Mazak sales manager. A short time later, the first turn-mill centre, a Mazak Integrex i-200ST, was coupled with a Halter Universal Premium.

All Halter automation solutions are compact, versatile robot cells in a variety of designs for CNC lathes, machining centres or both, as in the case of the Universal Premium. They have been developed for automated loading and unloading of rotationally symmetrical and prismatic workpieces. A wide variety of grippers is available, as well as grid plates that act as buffer storage for components.

While the robot loads and unloads a machine, an operator at the rear of the automation cell can replenish the system with raw material and remove machined components, without having to interrupt production.

The benefits of the first robotic cell were so convincing that Heinz Knöpfle has since invested in four further automation solutions from Halter – two additional Universal Premiums for a CNC turn-mill centre and a three-axis machining centre, a Halter Big for a Mazak i-200S turn-mill centre, and a Halter Turnstacker Compact 12 for a Mazak QuickTurn Nexus 250-II MSY lathe.

For further information www.1mta.com