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