Quick off the mark

quick-off-the-mark
quick-off-the-mark

Mike Richardson gets his skates on to catch up with Formaplex's business development manager, Matt Sellens, and hear how the company's latest developments are rapidly taking shape.

Mike Richardson gets his skates on to catch up with Formaplex’s business development manager, Matt Sellens, and hear how the company’s latest developments are rapidly taking shape. To the untrained eye, Formaplex is not that dissimilar to any other UK composites manufacturing company. Growing order book? Check. State-of–the-art equipment? Check. Singular ethos? Check.

But what makes Formaplex unique is the speed in which it rapidly turns around a variety of complex and technical customer projects. It’s not surprising really, when you consider that the company’s involvement in the Bloodhound SSC chassis machining and its own electric car land speed world record attempt!

Providing world class manufacturing solutions in injection mould tooling, composite tooling and the manufacture of components for the motorsport, automotive, aerospace and defence industries, the growth in Formaplex’s Hampshire-based manufacturing facilities are in direct proportion to a burgeoning order book.

Ongoing and expanding work with motorsport teams and automotive OEMs has been supplemented in recent years by programmes such as the previously mentioned Bloodhound SSC and the assembly and integration of composite armoured pods for the MoD Foxhound Light Protected Patrol Vehicle programme.

Formaplex currently works across three locations with over 300 staff. Its tooling division in Havant performs metallics machining, toolmaking and injection moulding, and has recently purchased a new Dinox 5-axis gantry machine from FPT Industrie. Meanwhile, its Horndean composites division - focusing on composite tooling, machining and production, has increased its capacity with the recent purchase of two CMS Antares 5-axis machining centres, an extended 400m² NADCAP level 8 clean room and a 3m diameter x 6m Marosa autoclave. Finally, the company’s 50,000ft2 facility in Cosham provides large injection moulding with 1,500 and 3,500 tonne presses, large injection mould tooling and inspection capabilities.

“We’ve always prided ourselves on being the quickest company in the marketplace in turning tooling work around for our customers,” begins company business development manager, Matt Sellens. “Being able to operate 24-7, ‘lights out’ means we can deliver quicker than anyone. We’re used to delivering to Formula 1 customers and their very fast turnaround requirements, so any kind of customer delivery demand is already well within our scope. If you’re used to an industry that historically has a slower response time and you’re being driven down in your delivery time, then maybe you’ll find working in this industry difficult. Not for us; it’s part of our ethos to make our deliveries quicker than anyone else.”

A question of balance

Balancing the worlds of motorsport, Formula 1 and the automotive sectors can be a tricky prospect for even the most established of companies. Not content with standing still, Formaplex is growing its involvement in aerospace by providing a composite part design and manufacture service, including in and out‐of‐autoclave tooling solutions, wet layup, infusion and prepreg laminates.

“Our first step is to obtain AS9100 aerospace accreditation due Q2 2015. Our next step will be meeting specific customer processes such as SABRE, and then we have business decisions to make about NADCAP and CAA approvals. Throughout the supply chain, companies that were historically involved in Formula 1 are branching out into aerospace. Yes, there are challenges, but it’s very interesting work and there’s never a dull moment!

“In terms of our workload, all the industries fit together pretty well. The difference is the timescales and the reaction times required. With our fast turnaround ethos, we’re used to motorsport lead-times; this rate of response is what has built our business. However, aerospace’s version of fast turnaround is much longer - it’s just a different way of working. Having a spread of different sectors means we can balance out these areas, whereas if we were solely reliant on one sector it could become frustrating. Aerospace generally uses the same technologies – i.e. high-end composite production, autoclave and prepreg - which is known and understood and delivers the requirements of both of our key sectors.”

A need for speed

The conversation turns to the latest developments regarding Formaplex’s forays into high pressure resin transfer moulding (HP-RTM), a move aimed at high volume manufacturing that requires ‘sub-5 minute’ component cycle times.

“Formaplex is a partner in two of the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative’s three-year projects: ACTIVATE and RITAA. RITAA concerns high pressure resin transfer moulding (HP-RTM), and we have just produced our first project tool. As far as we believe, this is the first UK designed and manufactured high pressure RTM tool. We trialled it at KraussMaffei, Germany last November and it worked fantastically well. The prototype components were cut up and tested by another partner company, LMAT, who are looking at part ‘spring back’ prediction in tool design.

“It’s been a great opportunity to demonstrate our tooling capabilities in an area we’ve not been in before. HP-RTM is a relatively new process to the UK and we have to understand the nuances that differentiate it from injection mould tool design - and then be able to demonstrate a viable process offering to UK industry. It’s become big business in Germany, whereas the UK OEMs are still waking up to it. Involvement in this project has given us a head start.

“There is a definite push in the automotive sector for HP-RTM on some parts, but also press-forming prepregs and using snap-cure resin systems too. The big push is for a fast turnaround and for snap-cure processes that give you full material properties at a fast production rate. There is still a lot of use of resin infusion where the reaction time isn’t so critical, so it’s horses for courses.”

Sellens says the biggest industry challenge is the amount of work he’s seeing. Consequently, Formaplex has grown to meet the needs of the projects that are around and aims to continue this growth. Peter Fredericks has recently been appointed as finance director and Claire Horsman has joined the company as marketing manager.

“In growing we must ensure that everyone involved picks up the ethos on which the company is built. We have a positive ‘can do’ attitude and we’ll accept any challenge. The big difference we have seen in delivering aerospace projects is the project management overhead required, compared with motorsport. The additional roles we’re expected to have as an aerospace supplier mean we’ve had to recruit specialists in different areas, but we’ve invested and brought in the best people to meet this requirement.”

Established in 2001 by two dynamic directors with a vision for being the best in their field, it’s fair to say that Formaplex is no longer just an SME. One thing’s for sure though, this is a company committed to getting to the top!

www.formaplex.com

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