Plastic Injection Moulding Specialists. Est 1948.

Stereo Lithography – Using a vat of UV-curable photopolymer liquid ‘resin’ and a UV laser to build parts a layer at a time. On each layer the laser beam traces a parts cross sectional pattern on the surface of the liquid resin. Exposure to the UV laser light cures or solidifies the pattern traced on the resin and adherezs it to the layer below. Stereo Lithography is also commonly known as 3D Printing,. Optical fabrication, photo – solidification, solid free-form fabrication and solid imaging. Prototypes made by SLA can be machined and can be used as master patterns for injection moulding, thermo forming, blow moulding, and also in various metal casting proccess.

Put your project in safe hands…

We want you involved in your project at every stage. The most important aspect of any brief is to give the client what he requires… plus a bit more!

Guidance

Letting us handle your project does not mean handing your project over to us. We simply guide you through CAD component design, prototyping, and then CAD/CAM tooling and manufacture. We have the design expertise and in depth knowledge of plastic injection moulding that your project will require, but will always work to your design requirements.

Communication

We pride ourselves on close interaction between our in house designers, toolmakers and manufacturing experts. Good communication between our staff in these key roles enables us to work quickly and efficiently and allows us to consistently achieve great results for our clients.

Co-ordination

S.B.Weston can co-ordinate any specialist processes required by your project. We regularly work with prototyping experts, laser welders, vacuum formers, metalworkers and many others.

Time Management

We will schedule regular meetings to keep you informed of all aspects of your project. Not all scenarios can be catered for, but after 60 years experience many can be predicted. We are able to give accurate estimates on the cost and timescale involved in a project and will allow time for modifications to either component or tool design.

The experience we have gained over the last 60 years is waiting to be applied to your product!

At S.B.Weston we will always encourage prototyping of your product in order to realise design aspects which can not be fully appreciated through computer rendered models. Prototypes are valuable for gaining an insight into how the product will perform and what its limitations and weaknesses may be. Understanding problems from a prototype allows the design to be easily be amended well in advance of tool production.

There are many available prototyping methods. We can machine plastics, wood or metal and where possible we will always work in the same materials as the intended final production version. Ensuring that the functional and stylistic aspects of the prototype are acurate to the production version is of optimum importance.

We transmit CAD information from files supplied by our designers, directly into our HERCO CNC milling machine allowing us to work on prototypes very quickly and accurately.

There are certain types of product where we will use Vacuum Forming instead of the traditional milling from a solid process. The process is most commonly used to produce product packaging using a material such as HIPS High Impact Polystyrene but is also very effective for many types of prototypes.

In the past we have manufactured prototypes using methods such as  Stereo Lithography.

Let us visualise your idea!

S.B.Weston’s design team can provide you with a technical drawing service using the latest CAD software.

Our designers will work with you to evolve and improve your product idea aesthetically and functionally creating 3D models and detailed drawings to visualise your idea on screen.

To ensure your product can be successfully transferred to a mould tool which moulds, ejects and generally performs correctly and consistently at the manufacturing stage, the following design considerations will be applied:

• consistent wall thicknesses throughout the design.
• thin walls to allow consistent cooling and reduce uneven material
• shrinkage.structures such as ribs utilised to strengthen walls.
• ribs – half the wall thickness to avoid sinking.
• corner and edge radii.
• draft angles added to sides (typically up to 2 deg) – especially textured /spark eroded walls and walls higher than 1.5cm.
• no undercuts that are impossible to remove from the mould unless absolutely necessary – undercut features nescessitate side core actions which significantly increase the complexity and cost of the mould.
• light colours and spark eroded finishes to hide flow patterns.
• keeping holes at least .0.75cm from edges.

Once these criteria are met we will look for a design approval from you, at which point the CAD files will be supplied to our toolmaking staff for prototyping or CAD/CAM tooling purposes.

Remember… Design will make or break a product… come to the professionals!

Let us take your product idea from sketch to prototype to production!

Project management

We specialise in project management, and are more than happy to guide you through all aspects of design and development applying our knowledge of the constraints of the injection moulding process along the way.

CAD Component Design

Our experienced in-house CAD component design team will take your ideas and sketches and turn them into fully rendered 3D CAD models producing acurate drawings detailing all aspects of your product.

Prototyping

We have prototyping facilities on site. The building of a prototype during the design process is essential in order to fully comprehend the product and iron out any potential weaknesses that it may have.

Let us resolve your product idea and reveal its full potential!