Services Catalogue
Feasibility Evaluation & Design for Manufacture
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Direct to part manufacture
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In-Direct part manufacture
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Technically demanding, high precision, repeatable & capable
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Engineering solutions for the manufacturing system
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Designing, executing and optimising the moulding process
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Accuracy in analysing the component produced against the component required
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Planning the quality strategy
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Working together to define & achieve the objectives
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Executing the defined objectives with simple & effective tools
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Simple & effective data management and control
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Feasibility & Design
'Precision' in injection moulding is not simply the end result of a component verification process; it has to be initiated at the very earliest stages by challenging expectations and then committing to them. This is achieved by assessing feasibility and developing robust product specifications which balance innovative design with manufacturing practicality.
Product specifications eventually need to become '...products'. Your organisation needs to touch it, test it, verify it. The results often feedback into the product design cycle, and/or continued manufacturing development. MouldPoint understand the need therefore for repeated iterations which in turn imply speed, cost effectiveness and a range of technical options to suit specific requirements.
MouldPoint can provide robust feasibility evaluation, design for manufacture, rapid prototyping and rapid tooling as discrete one-off options; or use our design capabilities and services to integrate into your design cycle, creating valuable collaboration as a foundation for building your production capacity.
Technical Review / Feasibility Evaluation / DFM
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The benefits of undertaking detailed Feasibility Analysis & DFM cannot be overstated.
DESIGN ROBUST PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS BALANCING DESIGN & MANUFACTURABILITY
VERIFY TOOL DESIGN ROBUSTNESS & PART IMPACT REVIEW
ENHANCE TOOL DESIGN SPECIFICATION TO MATCH PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS
DEVELOP METAL SAFE STRATEGIES TO FACILITATE POST-BUILD ADJUSTMENT
FACILITATE INCREASED PART CONTROL AND CAPABILITY
REDUCE LEAD-TIME BETWEEN FOT & CUSTOMER PART APPROVAL
MouldPoint provide the necessary experience and technical ability to assist in the optimisation of demanding product specifications and manufacturing constraints. Utilising appropriate technical software, the MouldPoint evaluation and analysis covers 19 key manufacturing elements.
3D Printing / SLA / SLS / CNC Machining
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Direct to part manufacture. Produce representative although not production intent parts from an array of manufacturing methods including 3D Printing / SLA / SLS / CNC Machining.
QUANTITY: 1 to 20 parts
LEAD TIME: 2 to 5 days (...excluding shipping)
GOOD FOR: In hand visualisation & presentation. Multiple rapid iterations tracking design progress including 'lite' functionality & assembly verification.
LIMITATIONS: Limited polymer selection precluding detailed mechanical & tolerance analysis. Limited part resolution with relatively high part cost.
Soft Tooling / CNC Tooling / Modular Tooling
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In-direct part manufacture. Potentially production intent parts from a selection of tooling methodologies.
QUANTITY: 100 to 10000 parts
LEAD TIME: 2 to 6 weeks (...to FOT; excluding shipping)
GOOD FOR: Detailed component verification including DFM, polymer selection, surface finish, gate configuration, application intent & bridge to production. Reduced part cost.
LIMITATIONS: Longer wait for first parts and limited cavitation options. Higher cost and lead time to test updated design iterations.
Build
During the Build phase all the knowledge, experience and lessons learned during Design are set in steel. The ability to adjust and fine tune the steel; facilitate tool maintenance; replace key tool elements; realise initial and annual validation; and first and foremost produce parts on demand, to specification, for the life of the programme is won or lost during this phase.
Our global network of preferred mould making vendors offer a range of options on the capability / cost curve. MouldPoint aim to provide a line of continuity from the Technical Feasibility Evaluation onto this curve; striving to match your supply chain expectations, supplier potential and product specification with robust tool design and build capabilities.
Serial Production Tooling
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Chinese toolmakers have well developed skills & capabilities designing and building technically demanding tooling devices, rapidly, with great value, and return on investment. MouldPoint has direct experience across a diverse portfolio of challenging applications and range of industries.
QUANTITY: 5000 to '...project-life' parts
LEAD TIME: 8 to 25 weeks (...to FOT; excluding tool design & shipping)
GOOD FOR: Advanced technically demanding capabilities within varied industrial sectors offering increased tool life and extended tool warranty.
LIMITATIONS: Potentially longer lead-times between FOT and final PPAP approval.
Component Automation & Secondary Operations
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The moulding process may be only half the story. Once the component is ejected control is lost and this is frequently sufficient. When control of the product needs to be maintained post-moulding our Syndicate Engineers can design, develop and implement bespoke downstream handling, processing and packaging systems. Engineered solutions include:
Planning / Statistics / Design of Experiments
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Component and mould tool / manufacturing systems are the physical elements of the Development Cycle. Process Design is equally important but very theoretical and frequently not given the same emphasis, if it is considered at all. MouldPoint understand that the successful completion the Development Cycle requires the careful planning and execution of 3; not just 2 elements: Part, tool / system, AND process. Compromise or sacrifice of any one of the 3 elements significantly undermines the entire development effort, diminishing the results and increasing the long term production risks.
Process Design starts with sound moulding principals derived from decades of learning and experience from the moulding industry. Informing the design process with polymer recommendations, component specifications and the statistical package to establish an ideal centre process. The designed centre process is used as a starting point to systematically push and probe the component and tool via a Design of Experiments programme. Statistically exploring the results against the component specification and updating the design process to optimise and drive process improvement. The expected benefits include:
MouldPoint can offer support on a consultancy basis within your or your supply chains development programmes, or as part of full service support within any development programmes run with a MouldPoint Syndicate.
Validate
The success of any project to design a component, build associated capacity and utilise the resulting product is only as good as the ability to verify the results. It is tempting to subordinate the measurement system and validation to the Design and Build cycles, after all the investment is deployed to manufacture and supply a component. But a technically demanding application may only be considered 'technically demanding' if the capability exists to accurately assess it to the narrowest of tolerances with minimal measurement error. Measurement systems require understanding, correct interpretation of the specification and the intent of the Product Designer; selection of the appropriate measurement equipment; expertly operated equipment; design and development of fixtures to accurately and repeatably present the component to the equipment or Technician; interpretation of the results confident in the knowledge that the feedback to Customer or an iterative tool adjustment cycle is accurate and can be relied upon.
That is why MouldPoint only work with Engineers and organisations with a pedigree in the field of measurement systems. It is also why we start to consider measurement systems at Feasibility Evaluation in the very early stages of any project reflecting its relative importance.
Measurement / Metrology / Analysis
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Component complexity drives measurement complexity and necessitates an array of capabilities to fully define a product against its specifications. MouldPoint can support your requirements as one off services or within a wider development project with access to:
EXTERNAL ANALYSIS
INTERNAL ANALYSIS
PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
APQP / IQ / OQ / PQ
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Equally important as final product validation is overall quality strategy within the project. MouldPoint bridge the Quality and Management functions using advanced quality planning to drive the project. Different industrial sectors employ their own quality planning systems such as APQP, IQ, OQ, PQ and others. MouldPoint can work within any of these systems or adapt as required. Irrespective of specific project requirements similar expectations are required including:
Manage
Project management services are an essential but non-value adding activity. Project deliverables seldom, if ever, specify project coordination as a deliverable in itself; yet inadequate project management is frequently the root cause when projects get into difficulties. Overly complicated project management systems can be a significant cost burden but still fail to identify project constraints, recognise developing issues in a timely manner, or communicate project status efficiently through multiple layers of interested parties.
MouldPoint believe that project management needs to be simple but effective, and low impact in terms of cost and manpower. It should run efficiently and continuously; not in weekly packets of time and data, or when a Project Manager '...gets around to it'. The service should operate quietly in the background in a supporting role with all project stakeholders, including the Client enabled to contribute the necessary stream of data that maintains an '...up to date' project status. In summary MouldPoint emphasis is less on coordination and more on collaboration providing access to simple cloud based collaborative management tools.
Online Project & Specification Data Management
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Truly effective project management comes from straightforward collaboration of all invested project stakeholders, where each understands their own contribution to the information driving the project.
MouldPoint intent is not to provide costly resources to continually manage and filter the data, but instead maintain and manage a simple framework into which the data is placed, organised and accessible 24/7. Essential to success of this management system is a detailed,agreed and approved Project Design Specification (PDS) comprising:
Real Time Project Review
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With the (PDS) Project Design Specification established and agreed, the key actions necessary to discharge the project successfully and efficiently are run through our online workflow and planning collaboration tools. Current project status on an action by action basis can be readily reviewed online in real time 24/7.
The planning tool provides a high level overview of front to back predicted project activity and timing including upload of key documentation for periodic review.
The workflow tool provides the agenda for detailed systematic project reviews and collaboration online, conferencing and face to face project meetings.
Online Single Point Storage, Access & Update
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MouldPoint understand that one of the keys to project success is not only managing the project activity, but also the data within the project; and providing ready data access to our Clients and Associates.
We provide secure access to project specific virtual workspaces accessed via the MouldPoint website with our YourPoint facility. YourPoint provides 24/7 shared workspaces into which project critical data is placed for online collaboration. The system provides for continuity of data; change tracking; transfer large files; single point access; archiving of data. The framework within YourPoint allows for:
RFQ PHASE:
DESIGN PHASE:
BUILD & PROJECT PHASE:
QUALITY PHASE:
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