Stewart Group Holdings unveils new plastic tooling method for lightweight carbon fibre parts

Stewart Group Holdings, the leading UK manufacturer of technical plastic moulded products for the automotive, industrial, professional catering, packaging, home and gardening sectors, has become the first Tier 1 supplier in the world to create moulds from soluble plastics.

Having trialled and tested this innovative new process extensively, the company offers this advanced method of production for lightweight, hollow carbon fibre and fibre reinforced parts.

The development means businesses in aerospace, defence, marine and vehicle manufacture can benefit from significant component weight reduction by sourcing parts through the Banbury based business. Aircraft hollow sections, for example, can be produced from a single piece of carbon fibre instead of multiple parts, by using Stewart Group Holdings core tooling.

Soluble plastics offer huge advantages over traditional moulding methods. Wax and sand cores are notoriously messy and need to be disposed of, while wooden cores need to be burned out. With soluble plastic, once the final product has been cured, the core simply washes away. Traditional plastic cores are left inside the hollow section which also adds to the final component weight and this is also eliminated by using the Stewart Group Holdings cores.

Commenting on the new production method for fibre reinforced products , Richard Butler, CEO & Chief Engineer of Stewart Group Holdings, said: “Stewart Group Holdings cores, when used as a tooling core for carbon fibre moulds, increases at a stroke the range of lightweight parts and components we can offer the manufacturing industries. It’s also much cleaner and more precise than traditional tooling methods and reduces the final component weight. This exciting new development reaffirms Stewart Group Holdings’ position as a world-leading innovative plastic component manufacturer.”

This latest development when coupled with Stewart’s range of long fibre injection moulded products allow Stewart to offer a full service supply service to automotive and aerospace customers in particular.

In January 2014, Stewart Group Holdings gained ISO/TS16949 certification. This recognises the company’s management and control systems and allows the company to guarantee repeatability in the quality of its products.

Stewart Group Holdings offers an extensive portfolio of products across its three specialist divisions of aerospace, automotive and medical industries. Additionally, they are the brand leader in plastic gardening products and have been a longstanding supplier to the house wares and catering business sectors.

For more information, visit www.stewartcompany.co.uk.