FAQ

Moulds can have many shapes and sizes, and each can be reused many thousands of times. At PRP, we specialise in producing parts that are up to approximately 175mm square and that have a maximum weight of 200g.

Tooling costs are generally proportional to the size and complexity of the part required.

For example, a very simple part such as a round spacer that can be moulded in one of our modular tool systems could cost as little as £500. Complex parts require dedicated tooling, which can take the price up into the thousands.

When you make an enquiry, send us a 3D file or drawing of what you need and we’ll promise to quote a competitive price to suit your budget. The more information we have about your requirements, the more accurate our quote will be.

Materials range from flexible to rigid with suitable for use in clean dry ambient applications through to high strength, high temperature and chemical resistance applications.

We can also offer material with certified flammability resistance.

An example of material types are:

• High-density polyethylene (HDPE)
• Low-density polyethylene (LDPE)
• Polypropylene (PP)
• Polyethylene (PE)
• Polyoxymethylene (POM, a.k.a. acetal)
• Polyamide (PA, a.k.a. nylon)
• Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)
• Thermoplastic Elastomer (TPE)
• Thermoplastic Rubber (TPR)
• Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU)

All moulding materials used are traceable. We have automated reports that, for any shipment, pulls thought links to all stages of the production and back to the delivery of the raw materials.

We have tooling in use that has been used for 10 million + cycles. Knowing the potential demand for a product and the enquiry stage helps ensure the tooling is specified correctly, when demand is high and/or aggressive material such as glassed filled PA66 are going to be used the extra costs of hardened cavity plates can be justified, for lower volumes pre-toughened steel plates can last 500,000+ operations. Soft alloy tooling is an option but the life of the tool will be reduced significantly

The tooling cavities are made to tolerance of less than 0.05mm, the type of moulding material can affect what results are achieved with the finished product. The large the product the greater the tolerance, flexible material can be challenging to measure accurately, but as a guide +/-0.1mm on 25mm diameter is achievable. Specifying tolerance at the enquiry stage is key, it can affect the tooling design. We can then put forward a proposal that will if required include gauging tools

Almost very tool is produced in our in-house tool room, depending on capacity and complexity we can call in sub-contract designers. Sub-contractors are also used for special processes such as heat treatment and deep hole drilling, but the projects are all managed and tools built in house.

For all new products samples are provided for approval before going into full production. We can supply these with our own sample inspection report or use customer provided systems. The number of samples provided would be agreed at the tooling order stage

It is possible to use either recycled or bio-plastics, the application of the product is key to selecting the correct material. If virgin materials must be used, as it the case with high performance and flame retardant materials then product and tooling design can minimise or eliminate any process waste

This is determined by the tooling, for large or complex parts then a single cavity tool may be the only options for higher volume simple products there could be 16 cavities or more. Having a higher number of tool cavities reduces costs per part but increase the minimum order quantities.

It’s possible to supply just 100 products if required, although due to set up time the costs per item is more expensive than an order for 1,000 items.

This is possible, although with the high levels of automation available we can use 6 axis robots to help with many tasks.

Products are be packed to customers’ requirements; this is another aspect this it is good to be aware of at the enquiry stage. Our MRP system is linked to labelling software, customer specific labels with barcoded product and production run specific data links are created when the products are created in the MRP system, keeping all the information tightly controlled.