Plastics News Europe - June 2019 - 21

moulds & tooling

to Rendle-Eames, 'there is more and
more use of 3D printing as a substitute for low volume moulds'. "We
foresee more use of 3D metallic
printing and of smaller machines
with greater press capabilities," he
said.
Next to advances in 3D printing,
another trend is that customers are
increasingly asking for greater tolerances and more exotic materials, he
added. And despite the benefits Axiom can offer in terms of expertise
and solutions, price competition from
Asian mould makers remains an ever-present concern.
Looking ahead, Rendle-Eames
sees a number of future developments that will work to the advantage of companies like Axiom.
"We think machining equipment
will improve so that cycle times will
reduce which will improve our labour
times and cost of finished parts. We
also think shipping and tariff costs
will go up, making Asian mould makers less attractive," he said. "And advances in 3d CAD and video animation will enable customers to design
and pre-sell more technically challenging components which will help
companies like Axiom that are
equipped to manufacture these complex products."

not just a simple mudguard

good example of the type of
engineering challenge Axiom revels in - and excels at,
said Alan Rendle-Eames - is the recent design engineering solution
developed for MTB accessories
company SicoMTB Products for a
particular mountain bike model
equipped with an electric motor. A
redesign of the mudguard was required: traditional mudguards do
not work with the changing geometry of the rear suspension, which
meant that the electric motor housing was not well protected against
the muck and water thrown up during use.
The in-house design team 3D
scanned the bike to precisely replicate the geometry of the bike and
enable them to simulate the suspension travel when riding on
rough terrain. The design team
then designed a shape to fit the
space, with some clever design features which addressed the various
problems. A 3d printed prototype
was produced for thorough testing
and final design adjustments before

The highly engineered DualGuard

the highly skilled machining team at
Axiom were brought in. They CNC
machined the initial prototype tooling using epoxy blocks on one of the
in-house 3 axis machines. The team
then worked with a vacuum forming
specialist to produce the final,
2-piece, innovative mudguard solution, the DualGuard.

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Plastics News Europe - June 2019

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