Sheet Steel Tooling
Sheet steel tooling is typically more suited to more straight forward products in terms of their detail and design. Steel tools are less expensive than either cast or CNC aluminium tools and are fabricated by welding sheet steel sections together and hand machining the welds to avoid visible seams on the finished product. Although sometimes limited, it is possible to create detailed and complex forms from sheet steel and we will usually have a very good idea from the outset as to whether or not a product design is suitable for steel or requires aluminium. One important advantage is that lead times for steel tools are usually shorter meaning that products can be available on the market more quickly. A typical steel tooling lead time is around 8-10 weeks.
Crossfield Excalibur are one of the UK’s leading steel toolmakers and have vast experience in the manufacture of not only tooling but also in roto moulding “rock and roll” machines which are used by many UK and Worldwide moulders. If steel is suitable for your project, we strongly recommend that Crossfield are involved at the design stage, design companies sometimes have no roto moulding experience so it will potentially save time and money to involve Crossfield as early in the design stage as possible.