RP Technologies supply prototype mouldings to a wide array of market sectors giving them a wealth of experience helping customers to choose a suitable polymer for their project.
Choosing the correct plastic to ensure the product performs as expected is a key part of product development. Get it wrong and you could live with the problems for a very long time, get it very wrong and the costs of product recall could be crippling.
Getting to know your project…
The correct material choice is vital to making a great, well designed product that will be profitable for the lifespan of your project so it’s crucial for RP to get a good understanding of your requirements. Once they’ve understood the necessities for the application they can then discuss the tool design and the material selection for the mouldings. These two topics are really important not only for the product performance but also for the longevity of the tool.
Choosing the correct polymer…
There are thousands of different polymers in today’s market place and thousands of different brands that offer the same properties, for the novice and to some extent the more experienced product designer the choice can be bewildering.
RP work with you to get a full understanding of the expectations of the product performance. This ensures that a polymer with the correct characteristics is suggested to suit your application. In experience its best not to over engineer the material selection by going above and beyond what is needed as this can add considerable cost and time into the process of tooling and mouldings.
For example, you wouldn’t use a high temperature nylon to produce a bucket for washing the car because of the cost implications; and in reverse you wouldn’t use polypropylene for a thermostat housing on a car as the performance wouldn’t be suitable for the application.
The performance of a polymer isn’t always down to how strong it is either, other considerations have to be made including cosmetics, assembly, colours, EMC shielding, flammability, type of filler, impact strength, shore hardness, UV stability… the list goes on.
RP have a great support network of material suppliers who can provide further details and previous examples of material uses. Their experience matched with the materials supplier’s advice will ensure that your final parts are fit for purpose. RP help you to launch new products and achieve success through great quality prototypes.
If you have a prototype project in the pipeline and are unsure of what material to use, please contact Paul Roe who will be pleased to offer advice. He can be reached on 0121 550 5868 or paul.roe@rptechnologies.co.uk
