Apeks Marine Equipment of Blackburn began manufacturing 30 years ago with one goal - 'to make the best diving equipment in the world,' - A goal fast becoming a reality. The company has continually invested in its manufacturing facility and RandD, a strategy that has paid dividends with Apeks growing into a major player in the diving industry, designing and manufacturing every aspect of diving regulators. Part of the ongoing investment includes a recently installed Mikron machining centre and cutting tools from ITC.

As Lee Cronshaw, Tooling designer and head of the toolroom at Apeks comments: 'We bought a new Mikron VCP machining centre three months ago and we needed to employ effective tooling solutions as our suppliers at the time only supplied tooling and did not provide advice and support'.

'We were convinced that with the correct support we could improve our productivity - and then ITC approached us with a view to supplying tooling'.

Apeks Marine has a machine shop and a toolroom, with the latter manufacturing injection mould tools, assembly jigs and fixtures and RandD work.

It is here that ITC was put to the test in an environment that works predominantly with D2 and P20 tool steels.

Mr Cronshaw continues: 'We had cutting tools from numerous manufacturers and we tested them by cutting a 150 by 100mm cavity 10mm deep, at the manufacturers recommended cutting speeds'.

'The test conducted on P20 tool steel is a typical example of our every day work and the three manufacturers' cutters showed remarkably different results'.

'All using 6mm coated carbide slot drills - One cutter snapped only half way through the test whilst another completed the part in two hours with considerable wear'.

'However, the ITC cutter completed the cavity in less than 40 minutes with relatively little wear on the tool'.

'Our decision was confirmed with this test'.

Since employing the new tooling, Apeks Marine has applied ITC tooling throughout the toolroom with 80% of all its cutting tools being supplied by ITC and 100% of its carbide tooling coming from the Tamworth based manufacturer.

ITC sales engineer Jason Clark says: 'Since conducting the tests in July, I have continually provided product service and support, which has seen our products introduced throughout the toolroom'.