Plastics News Europe - June 2019 - 20

moulds & Tooling

Axiom puts the focus on
complexity and quality

One of the most expensive parts of an injection moulding project is, very often, the mould
itself. Why? A range of skills and great precision are required to design, engineer and build
moulds that are optimised for manufacturability and will stay the course. Skills Axiom
Product Development has more than mastered.

stablished just over a year ago,
in May 2018, Axiom Product Development is a relatively new
name in the tooling business. It started operations after its founders, a
number of highly skilled engineers
and entrepreneurs, purchased the assets and trade of FRH Technical Engineering Ltd, a machining, rapid-prototyping and tooling business based
in Chichester, in the UK.
New the name may be, the team
has many decades of design and engineering experience and a proven history of helping customers successfully
develop and manufacture their products, said managing director Alan Rendle-Eames. "The team includes qualified CAD designers, toolmakers,
pattern makers, machinists, engineers
and support staff, all of whom are focused on providing leading edge customer service," he stressed.
With customers in numerous hightech advanced manufacturing sectors, this is not an idle claim.
"We work with businesses that
are typically fast-paced, innovative
and design-led who operate in industries including Automotive, Formula
1, Aerospace, Marine, Oil & Gas, Renewables and general engineering,"
said Rendle-Eames. "Our customers
are predominantly based in the UK
and Northern Ireland." He noted that
Brexit had thus far had had little impact on business. "We have not seen
a significant impact in the markets
that we are working in."
Axiom, he said, produces in the
range of 50 to 100 moulds per year,

depending on the workload and type
of customers. The main focus is on low
volume, pre-production and prototype
moulds, vacuum forming moulds, plastic injection moulds, blow moulds and
composite moulds. "As a business we
are continually investing in new machines - 4 so far in the past 6 months
- which enable us to produce larger
and more complex moulds. The largest
1-piece metallic moulds can be up to
2mtr x 1mtr x 400mm, whilst we have
manufactured PU tools measuring
3mtr x 2mtr x 1mtr."

Design and building
The design of an injection mould begins with a review of the part specification, on the basis of which a mould
concept is developed.
"We have an in-house highly experienced design team who can work
from concept sketches," said Rendle-Eames. "When designing a mould
they need to know, among other
things, about materials, volumes, applications, product life-cycle, customer needs, tolerances, environmental
requirements. They would also need
to know, for example, if the mould
was stand alone or part of an assembly process."
A number of decisions have to be
made. For example, various materials
are used to build moulds, including
aluminium, pre-hardened or hardened tool steel, or sometimes even
stainless steel. The number of cavities
needs to be known, the choice of
cooling configuration and ejection
system, the surface finish required -

all these and more must be determined before commencing to actually design the mould.
Once built, depending on the customer's requirements, the moulds are
usually dimensionally tested and can
be thermally tested.

Speed and quality
One issue that is always raised when
talking to a European mould maker is
the competition from the low-cost
moulds built overseas. Axiom specialises in high-tech mould making in low
to medium volumes. Can these not
be made more cheaply in Asia?
"We machine precision tools and
work in exotic materials, which are
areas that are not economical to
make in Asia," explained RendleEames. "The quality of our moulds
together with the technical expertise
that our team can offer enable us to
offer additional benefits and advantages that would not be possible for
Asian companies." Many of the
moulds that Axiom build are complex
and include moulds with clip parts,
moving parts and mixed materials, he
said, adding that Axiom also offer a
quick turnaround from sketch to prototype to mould and full manufacturing solution, which Asian businesses
are not able to offer.

Technology and trends
A technology that is finding increasing application everywhere in the industry, including mould making, is 3D
printing. At Axiom, this is also used
when required. Moreover, according

june 2019

Plastics News Europe - June 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Plastics News Europe - June 2019