Wondering which composite material or process is best suited for low, medium and high annual volumes? We have the answer!
[Transcribed from video]
Looking at different processes, when you look at low volume processes…thinking units somewhere between 0 to 1,000 units a year, middle range volumes somewhere between 1,000 to 25,000. And high volume units, 25,000 units or greater and beyond that.
There are different processes you want to use and different technologies that will either get you the payback you’re looking for or the tooling investment you are looking for.
So for low volume type of business, again stuff that would be less than 1,000 units a year, the processes you want to look into would be Hand Lay-up fiberglass (FRP), Resin Transfer Molding (RTM), maybe some vacuum forming.
If you are looking at medium volume units, 1,000 units to 25,000 units a year, you’d be looking at processes like Reaction Injection Molding (RIM) as an example (polyurethane, dicyclopentadiene or DCPD, or Long Fiber Injection (LFI)) amongst maybe some other processes like Resin Transfer Molding on the low volume side. Those would be some good fits from that standpoint.
And then high volume side, injection molding…again this is stuff that is 25,000 units per year. Injection molding, Sheet Molding Compounds (SMC), Blow Molding…things like that. Stamped Metal types of forming. Those would all be processes that would make sense for volumes of 25,000 or greater. Kinda give you a wide range of perspective of what process would fit for each of those different volume ranges.
Again, I want to put the disclaimer out there, it’s not a perfect science. It definitely depends on what the application is but at least that is a loose guideline you can use to go off of. So, with that being said, we can talk more about it. We certainly encourage you to reach out to us. We’d be happy to talk more. If you have a particular application you want to talk about or just talk in general about what process my be the best fit for what you are working on. We’d be happy to help either way. Thanks a lot!
