As Australian manufacturing moves focus on the defence and aerospace sector, we are doing our part.
Sutton Tools has a long history of working in the defence sector. With our roots dating back to 1917, the company supported Australia’s war effort through the Commonwealth War-Time Manufacturer’s Emergency Committee. We were seconded to produce munitions tooling during World War II.
Today more than ever, a local secure supply chain is critical when working within the defence industry segment. Sutton Tools designs, manufactures and supplies cutting tools to meet the needs of this specialised Defence and Aerospace industry. Our goal is to deliver defence-grade tools and strengthen Australian manufacturing. We work closely with DMTC, Defence Industry Advisory Services – DIAS and ICN Gateway.
We specialise in solid carbide round tool production, including drills up to 30xD and a complete range of endmills fit for Inconel, titanium, and all heat-resistant super alloys. In addition to producing a comprehensive range of standard DIN and ISO taps as well as specialised taps to suit Screw Thread Inserts (Aerospace specific STI).
Our Industry 4.0-led Smart Enough Factory approach helps us improve local productivity. Furthermore, we’ve established our new SMART Manufacturing Centre this year, a centre that delivers advanced cutting tool training, in addition to being our home of our R&D, engineering and product development.
Over the years, we have built up our defence tool manufacturing capability. We can tailor solutions to meet your needs and offer managed vending solutions to track and manage tool usage.
Safeguarding the manufacturing of critical products and building a resilient supply chain is imperative to strengthen our country’s defence and aerospace capabilities. Our core specialties are manufacturing advanced cutting tools, customised solutions with low MOQs and advanced machining technologies. At any point in time, we have a sizeable local manufacturing capacity and 20M AUD worth of tooling stock to manage surges in demand.
With local production complemented by leading global brand agencies – Walter Tools, SupplyPro, Hoffmann Group, Allied Machine and Engineering and Recoil – we have been supplying and working with our valued partners including:
- PWR Advanced Cooling Technology
- APT Advanced Manufacturing
- Ferra Group
- R&I Instrument and Gear Co
- John Hart
- Supashock Advanced Suspension
- Okuma Australia
- Alfex CNC
- Marand
- Australian Defence Force
Our commitment to high-quality standards has earned us several accreditations, including:
- 1993 achieved ISO9001:2015 Certificate QEC1374 SAI GLOBAL
- ISO 45001:2018 OHSMS
- Victorian Manufacturing Hall of Fame: Bill & Jim Sutton inducted in 2010
- Victorian “Hall of Fame” Manufacturer of the year 2017
And we are not planning on stopping any time soon. Each day we are striving to enhance Australia’s local manufacturing capability by leading development and innovation activities through our expertise in manufacturing and partnerships in the defence and aerospace sectors.
We are actively reaching out and making connections within the defence industry to showcase our sovereign manufacturing capability. We recently hosted Major General Andrew Bottrell – Head of Land Systems and his Military assistant Major Mark Bichan, John O’Callaghan – Victorian Defence Industry Advocate at Victorian Defence Council and Andrew Garth Managing Director of Defence Industry Advisory services at Sutton Tools. It was an honour to give them a tour of our facility and gain their insights into the manufacturing landscape of Australia. Please contact your local Sutton Tools account manager if you would also like to visit a Sutton Tools manufacturing unit.