Low cost tooling

All industries suffer from high tooling costs when it comes to one-offs and small series of 3D composite structures. Curve Works is a manufacturing company that produces affordable singly and doubly curved tooling.

 

Multiple tools from a single drawing

Our route to affordability is through our pin-bed based reconfigurable mould, which adapts itself directly using information from your 3D-CAD file. This means we can manufacture a complete set of unique tooling from one single mould, and one single drawing, eliminating the need for a plug.

Our specially designed manufacturing facility includes convection and infra-red ovens allowing optimised heating depending on the material required for the tooling. Larger tooling made from an assembly of panels is also possible using our laser projection system, enabling us to place, align and trim adjacent panels accurately.

 

Advantages of working with Curve Works

Through our reconfigurable mould and manufacturing facility, we can deliver low-cost tooling for prototyopes, one-offs and series production. The benefits Curve Works can provide you  includes:

Fast and affordable production of tooling panels directly off the adaptive mould, which, compared to pasta moulds for example, are lower in cost, have shorter lead times and are suitable for high temperature curing

Maximum flexibility for last-minute changes or immediate iteration on design

Production of an entire tooling set off of one single adaptive mould

Reduction of energy and materials required for traditional hardware involved in the manufacturing of the plug

Elimination of space required for storage of the plug and additional hardware

We are not just a manufacturer of low-cost tooling; we have extensive manufacturing knowledge to advise on and perform composite panels and composite panel assemblies for both tooling and the final product. Contact us to learn more.

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Low-cost singly and doubly curved tooling panels enabled through a reconfigurable mould. All images courtesy of ADAPA.
Assembly of curved panels into a complete tooling surface.