Ronnie Ross started his career at the tender age of 16 with work experience at a sign-making company before applying his trade at a second sign-making business. From here, the young entrepreneur realised his dream of starting his own company. Now, 20 years after the inception of Designed Signs & Graphics Ltd, the company has grown to become one of the primary print and sign-making companies in the Elgin area of northern Scotland.
Starting with little more than a rented unit, a Gerber Edge printer and GSX15 plotter – the company started out producing small print run jobs and signage. With financial assistance a few years later, the company invested in a large format digital printer, a Gerber Sabre 408 routing machine and a wide format plotter – it was here that the company started its journey with Tamworth based cutting tool experts Industrial Tooling Corporation (ITC).
Recalling the first interactions with ITC, Designed Signs & Graphics Ltd Founder and Managing Director, Ronnie Ross says: “Through my career, every business I worked for was using ITC as the ‘go-to’ supplier for all their routing tools, knife tools and ancillary equipment for routing. This is because the service, technical support and ability to solve problems were up there with the quality of their cutting tools. So, when I bought my first routing machine – ITC was the first name on the list.”
The arrival of wide format machines with a capacity to produce banners and signs up to 1.6m wide opened a new world of opportunity for the small business. As Ronnie adds: “With the additional capability and capacity, we could produce everything from shop fronts, 3D and illuminated signage through to vehicle wrapping, banners, cut letters and logos, fascia’s, engraving and all types of larger jobs. This not only opened doors of opportunity for our business to grow, but it also meant we needed additional advice and expertise on our choice of cutting tools. The increased variation in our workload meant the types of materials we were processing started to expand – and Sally Hunt from ITC was instrumental in ensuring we were using the right tools for the right materials.”
The company now serves customers within a 100 mile radius of Elgin, providing a complete range of services. Looking at the diverse range of services and how ITC has supported the company, Ronnie says: “We machine materials from PVC and Perspex through to Di-Bond, Wood, MDF, Ply, Polycarbonate and many others. Each material needs to be machined differently to optimise our machining performance and also our surface finishes. ITC has supplied us with everything from the Clearcut single flute tools for machining Perspex and PVC, engraving tools for all material types, an autocarve set for creating 30, 45 and 60 degree angled features on signs and letters as well as the Di-Bond range of tools for cutting ACM. Whatever we have needed from a cutting tool perspective, ITC has catered for all our requirements.”
The tools of choice that fulfil most of the routing requirements at Designed Signs & Graphics are the ITC single flute solid carbide Clearcut range with an upward spiral for swarf evacuation. The balanced 15 degree helix tools are primarily specified in 3 and 4mm diameter to provide a polished finish on Perspex, Acrylic and Foamex as well as a host of other material types. Following the initial success of the ITC Clearcut range, Designed Signs & Graphics started to integrate more of the leading tooling solutions from ITC. This includes the 3 and 4mm diameter Di-Bond Folding tools that are regularly adopted for machining Di-Bond and similar aluminium composite materials.
Referring to these tools, Ronnie says: “The ITC Clearcut and Di-Bond tools are fantastic. The quality of the tools and the strength of the carbide ensures both the Clearcut and Di-Bond series retain their edge sharpness and cut quality for very long periods. It also means that we rarely need to change our tools and tool breakages are never an issue for us. The Di-Bond tools are offered with both a 90 and 135 degree inclusive angles and they give us precision machining for a remarkably long period of time. This gives us confidence on the shop floor that we will never encounter any tooling-related issues. Whilst most Di-Bond materials are not very thick, we also apply the Di-Bond tools to cutting Perspex and other materials up to 19mm deep.”
Concluding upon the relationship with ITC, Ronnie says: “The service from ITC is ‘second-to-none’ and the technical advice and support from Sally at ITC is exceptional. As a UK-based cutting tool manufacturer, ITC has experts like Sally that can support our business and work with us to resolve any challenges that may arise. This includes everything from machining new materials, improving surface and edge finishes or enhancing our machining performance to increase our throughput. With next-day delivery and products of exceptional quality with fantastic service, we would never need to look for another cutting tool supplier.”
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