Services
Rapid Tooling & Low-Volume Injection Moulding
Aluminium and pre-hardened steel tools for runs of hundreds to tens of thousands — far less tooling cost and lead time than production steel, in true production materials.
Vacuum casting struggles past a few hundred parts, and production steel tooling means months and serious capital. Rapid tooling fills that gap: aluminium or pre-hardened steel, simplified construction, minimal polishing, inserts instead of slides where possible — tooling in two to four weeks.
The decisive point is that what comes out is a genuine engineering thermoplastic part. Material, shrinkage and mechanical properties match production, so it is valid for reliability testing and certification samples.
Capabilities
- Tool types
- Aluminium tools, pre-hardened steel (P20/718), single or few cavities
- Tooling lead time
- Typically 2–4 weeks, faster on simple geometry
- Tool life
- Thousands of shots in aluminium; tens of thousands in pre-hardened steel, material dependent
- Moulding volume
- 500–20,000 parts is the sweet spot
Solutions
Pilot runs and market launch
Real product in real volume before committing production tooling, keeping design risk in the cheap phase.
Certification and reliability samples
Production-equivalent material for UL, CE, ageing and drop testing.
Bridge production
Keeps orders supplied while production tooling is being cut.
Parallel design variants
Aluminium is cheap to modify, so two or three structural options can be validated at once.
Process Overview
The speed comes from subtraction: free-machining aluminium instead of hardened steel, simplified cooling, manual inserts instead of slides wherever tolerable, and polishing only where the cosmetics require it. The cost is shorter tool life, slightly longer cycle times and limits on cosmetic surfaces.
So treat it as a low-capital working tool for validation and bridge supply, not as a cheaper version of a production mould.
Materials
- Common thermoplastics: ABS, PC, PC/ABS, PP, PA, POM, TPU, TPE
- Filled grades: PA+GF30, PBT+GF, PPS (tool wear must be assessed)
- Flame-retardant and specialty grades: confirmed per project and certification requirement
Surface Finishes
- Cavity polishing (SPI grades as required)
- Texturing (VDI or leather grain)
- Painting and screen printing
- Laser marking
- Ultrasonic welding and assembly
Tolerances & Size Limits
- Moulded part tolerance
- To DIN 16901 grades, assessed against the specific material shrinkage
- Tool manufacturing
- ±0.02 mm on critical cavity dimensions
- Draft angle
- ≥1° on cosmetic faces, more where textured, scaled to texture depth
- Wall thickness
- Typically 1.2–3.0 mm, as uniform as possible
Design Guide (DFM)
Uniform wall thickness comes first
Uneven walls cause sink and warp — the most common moulding defect by far. Core out heavy sections or replace them with ribs.
Rib proportions
Rib thickness at 0.5–0.6× nominal wall. Thicker ribs telegraph sink marks onto the cosmetic face.
Avoid unnecessary undercuts
Every undercut means a slide or lifter, which drives both tooling cost and lead time. Convert to a through-hole from the side where you can.
Nominate cosmetic faces and gate location
Gate vestige, ejector marks and weld lines will exist. Tell us on the drawing where they are acceptable.
Allow for shrinkage
Shrinkage varies widely between materials (PP reaches 1.5–2.5%). Changing material means changing the tool — fix the material early.
Quality Control
- Tool design review covering gating, cooling and ejection
- T0 trial with sample parts and an issue list
- Dimensional report on trial parts, customer approval before tool correction
- First-article approval and in-process checks before the production run
FAQ
How many shots will an aluminium tool run?
Strongly material and geometry dependent, typically in the thousands. Glass-filled resins accelerate wear considerably and must be declared before quoting.
Who owns the tool, and where is it stored?
Per contract. Customer-funded tooling normally belongs to the customer, stored and maintained by us, with the terms set out in the quotation.
Can rapid tooling serve as production tooling?
For low volumes, yes. At higher annual usage, total cost still favours cutting production steel once the design is validated.
Need rapid tooling & low-volume injection moulding? Send the drawing to an engineer.
First reply within 30 minutes during working hours (4 working hours at the latest); full quote and DFM feedback typically within 12 working hours.