With the ever increasing pressures on both delivery times and costs, Toolcraft Plastics have set out methods for the quick production of injection mould tools.
With the ever increasing pressures on both delivery times and costs, Toolcraft Plastics of Swindon have set out methods for the quick production of injection mould tools. The ability to import client drawings from a wide range of formats such as DXF, DWG, IGES, Pro-Engineer, SolidWorks and STL reduces design time. Fully equipped with modern CAD/CAM facility and up-to-date mould flow analysis packages mould designs can be optimised at Toolcraft and any proposed parts or tool changes relayed to the client using E-drawings without additional software on client's systems.

By judicious choice of material grades, tools in aluminium alloys, capable of 100's of thousands of operations can be made often up to 30% cheaper than the equivalent steel product.

They are easier and faster to machine, with deliveries typically 50% of normal delivery times.

Being lighter they are more easily handled, do not rust and are generally corrosion resistant, particularly against PVC induced contaminants.

Also as aluminium conducts heat four times better than steel, tools run cooler, and can therefore be run faster, resulting ultimately in lower parts costs.

Toolcraft's long term experience enables them to predict areas of stress which where necessary can be strengthened with steel inserts.

For further extended life, and minimal cost increase of around 10 - 15% tools can be nickel cobalt coated to a Rockwell hardness of 55.

Fast, accurate and reliable tool manufacture then comes from the direct link between design computers and production machines.

The final 'edge' comes with Toolcraft's ability to set up quickly and run prototypes, pre-production runs or full production in a wide range of plastic materials.

Toolcraft Plastics have years of experience in all forms of tooling, not just in aluminium and have an abbreviated analysis of tools and their applications 'on the web'.