A walk around the Sinclair & Rush factory on a busy industrial estate just off the M20 on the outskirts of Maidstone was all it took to fully appreciate the spread and flexibility of S&R’s dedicated plastic moulding resource.
The main site is a designer, floor to ceiling maze of tools or moulds of every conceivable size and shape. Some were manufactured for one off custom jobs and others create bread and butter caps, plugs and sleeves in volumes, called off to clients’ tight production specifications.
Left: A living museum of dip moulding tooling providing standard and bespoke masking solutions across the UK and Europe
The relative slowness of the moulds’ journey through the ovens after dipping belies the urgency of the stripping and priming process when each rack is unloaded, cleaned and readied for the next of its apparently endless cycles. QC looks on and sequentially tests the eye boggling array of plastic shapes, colours and sizes, as components are readied for despatch.
Right: compressed air blasts release the caps from the moulds after they have been dipped and baked.
Below: the image shows masking sleeves for motor manufacturing electronic components as they are raised from the dipping tanks.
Like a scene from and aged Dr Who, plastic screens part, lights flash and horns alert as large, ominous 8 cubic metre tanks of liquid plastisol are forked into holding bays. These come from the workshops across the way. Here, Sinclair & Rush manufacture and mix their own materials in colours and formulations for every conceivable plastic moulding, single and double dip, and coating requirement.
The mezzanine area over the packaging and distribution centre is the tool shop. Standard tooling is maintained and bespoke moulds created to client specification. The specialist team of engineers have extensive experience to support S&R sales engineers as they solve tricky masking problems with innovative fresh solutions.
The prep, dip, blast, pack, ship is the tip of the plastic moulding iceberg. Much goes on behind the scenes, particularly when tooling a new application. The benefits of custom precision create solutions that apply more quickly and last longer. Some may remove one or more of the expensive finishing stages altogether, speeding the entire process, saving time and improving manufacturing quality throughout.
As you know, masking is an essential part of the finishing process across a wide variety of production stages in a large range of manufacturing and engineering industries.
To keep target areas protected from liquid contamination and invasive materials, reusable caps and sleeves reduce labour intensive masking and their quality / tolerance avoids the even more costly errors leading to scrappage, re-engineering or a time consuming clean-out process to repair.
Left: Preparing to re-tool one of the dip furnaces for a standard range of caps. Sinclair & Rush Sales Engineers work with our tooling specialists to create custom moulds to cap, plug and protect almost anything.
Whatever the surface finishing process, paint, powder coating, e-coating, plating - and however hostile the operating environment and temperature - key components benefit from fast, efficient, re-usable, dedicated or versatile masking solutions.
There are many off-the-shelf caps, plugs and sleeves manufactured and supplied globally through Sinclair & Rush http://www.sinclair-rush.co.uk/.
There is also a wealth of experience to advise on the best product type, combination and application for the many and varied processes that clients face in their manufacturing and shipping processes.
Technology, machinery and materials have evolved alongside engineering skills. Dip moulding processes are more flexible and precise. Results provide exceptional accuracy to previously unattainable tolerances, enabling bespoke masking to be less costly to create; ergonomically easier to apply and remove; and economically reusable.
If you would like to review your masking and product protection policies in search of cheaper, faster, more efficient solutions, call Sinclair & Rush today on 01622 693 200; visit www.sinclair-rush.co.uk or email sales@sinclair-rush.co.uk today - and put a smile on your FD's face.
Right: they may look like fork handles, but...:
