Testimonial: “The No 1 thing I value is BEC’s reliability. I’ve been in this role for 20 years and they’ve consistently been a supplier I never need to worry about. Giving us the right level of support, when we need it most.”
Adam, Purchasing & Procurement Manager
Industry: Agricultural products
Service: Tooling, design for manufacture, moulding,
Our Client: One of our longest-standing filtration customers, this particular client works in a rather cut-throat industry. They have therefore requested for several details including their name to remain private. Find out more about how we worked closely with them to produce the unique filters below.
Our Mission: BEC Group were tasked with manufacturing screw-on lids for small tubes that must also feature a mesh within the lid. Several different coloured caps were requested to fit the same tube but allow for different levels of filtration.
BEC Solution: BEC precisely measured the tubes to be capped and used CAD software to draw up a multi cavity mould tool to produce the mouldings. Collapsible cores were included in the design to allow for easy release of the caps without having to unscrew them. This was included as part of the design for manufacture as a time and cost-saving technique.
To create the lid a polypropylene cap was overmoulded onto the nylon mesh, allowing for airflow within the tube without contents leakage. The client has three different products within the range, denoted by different colour caps. The colour of the cap corresponds to the hole size of the mesh, this is measured in microns. The red cap is 100 microns, the blue is 280 microns, and the green is 100 microns.
The plastic caps were moulded in polypropylene, coloured with a masterbatch. Polypropylene was selected for this project due to it being lightweight (the tubes are sent via post), impact resistant, and inexpensive.
Result: BEC produced a four-cavity mould tool to reduce cost per part for each cap. The tool was designed with collapsing cores to allow for ease of ejection and a faster cycle time with less moving parts.
One of the great benefits to this tool is that it allows for meshes to be interchanged with one another without modifying the tool. The meshes of varying microns that are used to contain different sized materials that could quickly be changed.
Once the tooling had been produced and first off samples okayed, we rolled into production of each cap. We now manufacture around 200,000 of the different caps every year alongside other filtration products.
If you’re looking for a UK manufacturer to help work with you across design, tooling or plastic injection moulding, please get in touch on 01425 613131 or email.
