When the Essex based subcontractor JB Limmax of Harlow needed to reduce its processing times, it turned to ITC Tooling of Tamworth.

JB Limmax of Harlow is one of the UK's leading manufacturers of paintball gun components. When the Essex based subcontractor needed to reduce its processing times, it turned to ITC Tooling of Tamworth. Beside gun components, the company produces small batch work for the electronics, MoD and medical industries, predominantly working with aluminium.

JB Limmax was introduced to ITC Tooling at the MACH exhibition and shortly after, an ITC sales engineer visited the company.

JB Limmax Managing Director Barry Mann recalls: 'When we first came across ITC, we explained our problems and they immediately sent an engineer to our site.

The engineer introduced us to the 2041 high helix range of cutters.

These had an immediate affect.

One job was 19 hours per 100 parts, the ITC cutters slashed that time to 15 hours.

We have since installed newer technology, which includes a 12,000rpm spindle machining centre.

That has really enabled us to optimise the cutters capabilities; the machining cycle is now 10.5 hours.' Before the introduction of ITC Tooling, JB Limmax had difficulty obtaining cutters to the required lead times.

The extensive range of off-the-shelf cutters from ITC ensures that JB Limmax receives the required cutters through a next day delivery service.

'Initially we had a cultural problem with the shop floor, but once the staff witnessed the benefits of the cutters, the whole workforce selected ITC as their first choice tooling supplier,' continues Mann.

The most important factor at JB Limmax is the reduced cycle times and the significant reduction in downtime credit to the tool life of the 2041 series.

However, this is partially due to the introduction of the new machine tools.

Up to 50% of the tooling at JB Limmax is ITC and this will undoubtedly increase in the future, credit to the exceptional tool life.

The high rigidity of the 2041 series is a contributing factor to extended tool life.

It also contributes to the impressive surface finishes, which have vastly improved since the introduction of ITC tooling.

This was demonstrated when milling a small pocket.

JB Limmax used the 6mm 2041 series, the complete series has wiper flats on the bottom to guarantee an exceptional surface finish.

It was awkward to get coolant into the pockets and the high helix of the 2041 series provided excellent swarf clearance.

This enabled the coolant to get to the relevant areas, which also contributed to improved finishes.

'In many instances the finish is more important than the size to our customers.

This is because most parts are polished and the polishers used to spend considerable time working on components.

Now the processing time in the polishing department has been slashed credit to the finishes achieved by the cutters,' concludes Mann.