Rapid Tooling for Plastics
What Star Prototype does for its customers:
- Production of premium quality injection moulded parts at low cost
- Strict scheduling for on time delivery
- Professional customer support in multiple languages
Highly Adaptive Service
Our prototype and low-volume tooling & molding services are highly adaptive. We listen to what our clients need to achieve and we adapt our services to suit your personal requirements. Whether you need just a few hundred parts for physical testing; or you need a few thousand parts for product launch; or even a few-hundred-thousand parts for low-volume production: we have a low-cost and fast solution for you.
We do not require you to change your design to suit our processes. All we ask is that the part geometry conforms to normal best practice for injection molded part design. We can source and work with most injection molding resins available in the world today.
Prototype Injection Molded Parts
- 1 off up to hundreds of parts
- Simple to medium complexity parts
- Lowest tooling cost but higher piece price
We will use low-cost P20 soft-tool-steel or 7075 Aluminium and make just the core, cavity & ejector plates and insert these into a Master Unit Die (MUD) base. We will not add cooling ways or other costly trimmings to the tool. This is as basic as it gets and is similar to many of the ‘rapid injection molding’ services offered elsewhere in the World today. For polished or high-gloss parts we will normally use NAK-80 a polishing stainless steel.
This system can offer simple to moderately complex parts. We often use hand loaded inserts to form complex side features, but we can also add hydraulic cores.
Very Low Volume Production Molded Parts
- Many hundreds up to thousands of parts
- Simple up to very high complexity parts
- Medium tooling cost with medium part price
We will use better quality P20 soft-tool-steel or 7075 Aluminium and make a complete stand-alone mold. We may add cooling ways, hot tips, and other refinements to aid with production. For polished or high-gloss parts we will normally use NAK-80 a polishing stainless steel.
Low Volume Production Molded Parts
- Thousands up to hundreds-of-thousands of parts
- Simple up to very high complexity parts
- Higher price tooling with much lower part cost
We use pre-toughened high quality P20 tool-steel or NAK-80 stainless-tool-steel and make a complete mold which is in effect a full production tool but without full hardness. These tools are not export quality.
Export Quality Full Production Tools
Star-Prototype does not make export quality full production tools. We are happy to make introductions to companies that can help our customers.
Under special circumstances we will export our prototype and low-volume tools but on a no liability basis.
Ownership
All tools are owned by Star-Prototype until such time as payment for tooling has been made in full at which time all tooling becomes the property of the client.
COMING SOON:
One-Man-One-Mold (OMOM) Service
In June 2013 STAR will launch its new OMOM-China service offering ‘Parts in Days’.
How does it work? ONE highly skilled designer/toolmaker works alone in a fully equipped Toolmaking booth to produce a complete injection mold in P20 or Aluminium. The Master Moldmaker has his own CNC Milling Machine and a half share of EDM Solid-sink and EDM Wire machines. The Master Moldmaker receives the 3D CAD data from the projects office and is tasked with designing the mold using Delcam Toolmaker Pro, choosing a pre-stocked die-set from the store room, and then proceeds to make, fit and trial the entire mold.
This is a highly efficient mold-making process and results in parts being ready in 3 to 15 days. On average each Master Toolmaker can produce 2.3 molds per month of varying complexity.
