Composites UK launches best practice guide for composites tooling

Photo Credit: Composites UK

Composites UK has officially launched the latest in its series of good practice guides. This latest edition focusses on Mould Tooling for Fibre-Reinforced Polymer Composites.

Good tooling for molding composites is intertwined with process selection and critical to manufacturing repeatable and accurate parts. Tooling choices are an important part of reducing the environmental impact of parts, potentially reducing energy use and material waste, both in process scrap and failed parts, as well as enabling faster, more cost-effective manufacturing of parts which contribute to our pathway to net zero in transport, renewable energy, construction and other sectors.

Composites UK would like to sincerely thank the authors of this guide:

Nigel Keen, Creative Composite Connections
Stella Job, Grazebrook Innovations
and Richard Bland, Composite Integration
as well as the reviewers, Stu Morris, Pentaxia and Michel Marie, Ineos Britannia and the guide’s co-funders, the National Composites Centre.

“This guide provides a wealth of information about a fundamental part of composite manufacturing that is not talked about enough, and it will be a really useful resource,” says co-author Stella Job. “It’s exciting to see how things are changing, especially in the area of 3D printed tooling. I hope many others learn as much as I did from reading it.”

The guide includes chapters on:

Tooling types and specification
Tooling as the key to process selection
Tooling design
Automation and production/process line integration
Sustainability considerations
Tooling materials
Process control, safety and operation
Tooling durability and service life
No tool and specialist tooling
Next steps and future developments

The information within the document is backed up by case studies from the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, Airtech Advanced Materials, Alan Harper Composites, Composite Integration, Haydale Composites Solutions, Norco Composites & GRP, Plyable, Surface Generation and 11^th Hour Racing.

The guide is free of charge and available on Composites UK’s website, here.

Website: www.compositesuk.co.uk/industry-support/good-practice-guides/
Website: www.nccuk.com