Part of TCI Group · UK design, UK manufacturing capability, since 2019
Here are six anonymised jobs across the hand-made, cast, vacuum, compression and injection routes. Each focuses on the part that was genuinely difficult, rather than the thing the enquiry led with, and explains the trade-offs behind the fix.
Six jobs
Every one of these started as a simple request, then revealed one difficult problem underneath. That's the usual shape of a tooling job.
When your aerospace subcontract part includes a very small raised feature, even a trapped bubble can make a real difference. At this scale, it does not simply mark the feature; it can delete it altogether. That's why both the mould and the cast went under vacuum, with the pour reworked around degassing rather than speed.
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A thin cast patch curled at the corners, and changing the material did not fix it. The fault was in the mould construction. Once it was rebuilt on a rigid base, the patches came out flat. The diagnosis is the useful part of this example.
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When a hand-modelled master inhibited a platinum cure, it left a tacky mould face. Identifying the contamination mattered more than simply remaking it. Without finding the cause, the next master would do the same thing.
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A natural form with hundreds of overlapping undercuts needs a different approach. No rigid mould could open around that shape, so it became a brushed silicone glove inside a rigid mother mould. The trade-off is a slower cycle per cast.
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We moved the soft silicone ear pads from casting to a compression tool. The parting line was moved away from the sealing lip, so the wearer could not feel it. We set the hardness using real parts rather than relying on a datasheet.
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We moved a printed strap logo into moulded relief because print wears off on a wrist, while relief does not. The mark was drafted to stay crisp throughout a long production life, without filling or feathering.
Read the jobWhy anonymous
For us, the shape created in tooling is your commercial asset. A candle brand's silhouette, a wearables company's strap profile and a component buyer's sealing geometry can all set them apart in the market. That is why we do not place customer names next to photographs of their moulds.
What we can describe honestly is the engineering: what the part had to do, which route it took, what went wrong along the way and what the fix cost in trade-offs. That is the detail that helps someone facing a similar problem, without identifying anyone.
Across all six, you'll notice the same pattern. The headline is almost never the difficult part. The real challenge is usually flatness within a material enquiry, contamination within a remake, or a parting line within a hardness argument. That's why we ask so many questions before quoting. The problem as first described and the real problem are usually different things.
There is another pattern worth knowing: every fix costs something. A vacuum route is slower than a bench pour. A glove mould in a mother mould takes longer per cast than a two-part tool. A harder tray lasts longer, but is less pleasant to demould. If a supplier tells you a change is free, they have not finished thinking it through.
If your job resembles one of these, tell us when you get in touch. It is a quicker way to describe your problem than writing a specification, and helps us see straight away which questions we can skip.
Route by example
We include one worked example for each route, so you can compare them in practice rather than just in theory.
The sixth job involved a jewellery master that inhibited a platinum cure. It is a story about materials and contamination, rather than the manufacturing route.
| Route | The job that shows it | What it was chosen for |
|---|---|---|
| <a href="service-hand-made-moulds.html">Hand-made</a> | <a href="project-pine-cone-tooling-undercuts.html">Pine cone tooling</a> | A brushed skin was the only thing that would come off hundreds of overlapping undercuts |
| <a href="service-cast-moulds.html">Cast</a> | <a href="project-electrical-patch-flatness.html">Electrical patch flatness</a> | Simple geometry, where the mould construction rather than the material decided the result |
| <a href="service-vacuum-cast-moulds.html">Vacuum cast</a> | <a href="project-aerospace-component-0-2-mm-feature.html">Aerospace fine feature</a> | Degassing mould and cast alike, because one bubble removed the critical feature |
| <a href="service-compression-moulds.html">Compression</a> | <a href="project-silicone-ear-pads-compression.html">Silicone ear pads</a> | Repeatable soft parts with the parting line placed where nobody could feel it |
| <a href="service-injection-moulds.html">Injection</a> | <a href="project-watch-strap-moulded-logo.html">Watch strap logo</a> | A long production life at the lowest cost per part, with moulded detail that had to stay legible |
Take a look at the routes side by side on the processes page, or send a part to the partnership team. We'll tell you which of the five it belongs in and why.
More records
Six more project write-ups covering different sectors, formats and problems, in the same warts-and-all style.
The maker wanted the bar's face to carry a fine wordmark, not a printed label. That meant a mould that released cleanly, showed no venting marks on the face, and lasted the pace of a small production run.
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The brand wanted a fragrance candle whose outer vessel was also its packaging. That meant a two-part silicone mould that could release a doubly curved shape with a decorative fin, without leaving a seam anyone would run a thumb over.
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A wholesale soap maker was pouring cold-process loaves into wooden boxes lined with baking paper. They wanted a moulded silicone loaf mould that took the same volume, released cleanly, and left a subtle brand mark on the base of every bar.
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A brand poured tall tapered pillar candles from a stack of hand-built cardboard formers. Every candle came out looking hand-built. They wanted a reusable mould that gave a clean face, a straight taper and a level base.
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A home-fragrance brand was pouring tealights into a rack of individual metal cups. The rack pour worked, but was slow, cluttered the bench, and stopped them scaling. They wanted a single mould that gave the same result in a single pour.
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The brand had a planter range that sold well, but every finished piece went through three post-cast steps: drilling a drainage hole in the base, sanding the drill marks, and gluing on three rubber feet. Each step added time, added cost, and added a failure mode.
Read the recordAt a glance
Which route suits your quantity
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Real people, a real workshop
No call centre and no middlemen. When you contact TCI Mouldings, you speak to the team who design, build and check your mould.
Thomas LaneManaging Director
George PrestonDesign & Project Manager
Kelly BallingerHead of Partnerships
Jim AndertonProduction Manager
TheodoreEmployee Welfare