A recently signed annual ‘Preferred Partnership Agreement’ has been signed between Glasgow-based Walker Precision Engineering and Seco Tools UK.

The agreement, with its emphasis on continuous improvement and best-practice methods to help WPE increase productivity levels, reduce operational costs and optimise machining processes, provides the company with preferential and priority access to a range of Seco’s technical consultancy services, including: on-site and off-site technical support; turnkey and process improvement; documented cost reduction (DCR) programmes; custom tool design, manufacture and supply; STEP (Seco Technical Education Programme) training courses; regular updates on new technologies and process developments; and new tooling and service introductions and upgrades.
To ensure that the agreement is focused, proactive and maintains momentum, regular monthly planning and quarterly review meetings with key personnel from WPE and Seco are scheduled.
Within the first few months of the agreement being signed, the partnership was delivering results, most notably with the machining of a complex precision chassis part-manufactured by WPE for a defence industry customer. Working in partnership with Seco’s product and technical staff, and employing process improvement strategies and a focused DCR programme, WPE has been able to reduce cycle times for this part by 40%.
At one of the planning meetings, Seco presented an overview on My Pages – the company’s digital portal that provides customers with access to Seco product information, cutting data, previous purchase history and test reports. Benefits include the ability to quickly and reliably find the most appropriate tool for any specific application, which is achieved by searching the on-board SUGGEST database and selecting specific component characteristics, machining priorities and machining strategies that will be employed.
For further information www.secotools.com

In 2016, Surrey-based GPR Ltd made its first strides from three to five-axis machining, and it was cutting tool manufacturer Industrial Tooling Corporation (ITC) that fully supported the subcontractor in selecting the optimum cutters for the new machine. Now, ITC has stepped in again to solve a new challenge.

GPR managing director Vernon Ward says: “We won an initial order for 20 sets of mobile phone test-bed housings and each set consisted of six parts. However, with upward of 300 holes per set, we had an average of three drill failures per set. We persevered with existing HSS drills for a while and then won an extended order for 80 sets of the mobile phone test-bed housings, so we called ITC.”
ITC immediately suggested the Widia range of VDS solid-carbide through-coolant drills to eliminate tool failures and the associated time and costs involved with changeovers.
“We completed the entire batch of 80 sets, which consisted of 480 parts and approximately 24,000 holes, with a single set of drills,” says Ward. “After the project had finished, the VDS drills were still in an ‘as-new’ condition. The drills may have been more expensive than our previous tools, but they paid for themselves by the time we machined 20 parts.”
When GPR won another order for drilling oil well monitoring equipment, ITC again recommended the VDS drilling range. The batch of 10 Duplex bars required four 10 mm deep holes per part and, with a pre-drilling and drilling cycle, the complete drilling time was 4 minutes 58 seconds per component. Aiming to reduce this cycle time, the VDS drills reduced the cycle time to just 44 seconds, a cycle time reduction of over 400%.
For further information www.itc-ltd.co.uk