Materials and processes

The right choice of materials and manufacturing processes is instrumental in determining how your product performs, how long it lasts and how much it costs to make. More than that, material or process innovation can be a key source of competitive advantage.

Functional and quality requirements, projected life cycles, predicted sales volumes and target costs are usually the primary factors we consider when selecting production materials and manufacturing processes. However, other factors play a part, including your in-house facilities and expertise and those of your supplier base.

We evaluate alternative solutions against these factors using a combination of software tools, material databases and, most importantly, the knowledge and experience of our engineering team, our material suppliers and our manufacturing partners. For injection moulding, the investment costs and timescales can be substantial. So we use our extensive suite of Moldflow simulation tools to optimise component design, tool geometry and moulding process parameters, before any metal is cut.