Just over three years ago, Kennametal South Africa announced that it had appointed PTD Metalworking Professionals as its official distributor, one of 10 Kennametal distributors in South Africa. Since then, the company has been growing steadily, both in customers and the number of staff it employs and has graduated to becoming a certified partner, one of only two in South Africa.

PTD Metalworking Professionals, a company within the Perfection Tool and Die Group, was established in May 2021 to boost Kennametal’s growing presence in the metalworking industry in South Africa.

“We partnered in particular with Kennametal because we have been a big user of their product for many years,” said Filipe dos Santos, one of the directors of the Perfection Tool and Die Group, a company that has just celebrated its 50th anniversary.

PTD Metalworking Professionals are now a Kennametal certified partner, one of only two in South Africa

Marcus Filer, who has been in the tooling industry for over 25 years with the majority of those being in sales and management, was appointed as the Sales Manager and he took on the responsibility of taking PTD from scratch to being a fully-fledged distributor accounting for sales, application enhancement and training.

“Our punch line is ‘We use the tools that we sell’. This is because PTD has been setup in the same premises as Perfection Tool and Die in Anderbolt, Boksburg, Gauteng. Perfection Tool and Die is a multi-faceted organisation that has a fully-fledged CNC machine shop with over 80 CNC machines on the floor.”

“We provide technical support for metalworking and manufacturing companies throughout the country. We now employ six staff servicing end user and reseller customers, from Delmas to Durban and Carletonville to Cape Town. Major industries served include aerospace, automotive aftermarket, medical, defence, alternative energy, mining and construction,” said Filer.

In addition to indexable and solid tools, PTD carries a full line of toolholders for turning, milling, drilling and threading applications as well providing tooling solutions and special tooling.

“Kennametal brought a strength to our mission of not just being a supply company, but a real source of technical support for our customers. Their technical knowledge and experience is outstanding,” explained Flier.

Tool vending and tool management software are also part of the line-up.

“It definitely positions us to better support our customers in the areas of increasing productivity and reducing cycle times and costs, which are so critical today. The Kennametal technical support is outstanding, and partnered with our service reps and experience, sees the end users make more money.”

“We are very proud that are now recognised as a Kennametal Certified Partner, an accolade that is bestowed on very few.”

Kennametal was founded in 1938 by metallurgist Philip M. McKenna in Latrobe, PA, USA. They service customers across aerospace, earthworks, energy, general engineering and transportation who all trust Kennametal’s innovations in materials science, tooling and wear-resistant solutions.

“We have developed some amazing relationships with our other supply partners, and we now also market Insize measuring equipment, Kingbull soft jaws, Tapmatic and Rocol lubricants, Flexilube coolants, Easson Vertex, CNC Support and various other holding tools and vices and will generally source and supply any product or cutting tool required by our ever-increasing customer base.”

“To complement the incredible range of Kennametal solid carbide tools and drills we have started offering regrinding and recoating services from a well-known service provider in KwaZulu-Natal. Whilst we are becoming a recognised industry player our core philosophy remains embedded in customer service, reasonable pricing and to supply the right tool for the application or environment. Being part of the PTD group of companies still allows us to use the phrase “we use the tools we sell”, as our parent company increases its fleet of CNC machines.”

For further details contact PTD Metalworking Professionals on TEL: 011 918 3177 or visit www.pertool.co.za