Software minimises moulders' risks

Moldflow supports HBC's core competency which is moulding, and enables it to design for manufacture and implement digital tool trials early in its development process.

HBC has been serving the engineering sector for over 40 years, maximising its skills to suit customers from sectors including electrical and medical.

HBC provides a range of services that complement any manufacturing project, the versatility of its engineering project management leaves customers to concentrate on their own solutions safe in the knowledge that the supply chain is fluid with HBC.

Operating from the premises based at Sheerness, in Kent, and being equipped with the latest technologies to design and manufacture the "complete solution" under one roof.

By outsourcing through HBC, fixed costs become variable, and the more services that they can provide for you, the higher the cost savings become.

HBC Engineering Solutions is a privately owned business consisting of three discrete elements.

Covering the areas of design, engineering, manufacture and assembly, all under the unique project management culture, HBC does not believe in compartments, and its operation runs as one big unit rather than many departments.

Managed communication is vital to maintaining their level of delivery in every aspect of its customers' requirements.

Within its component manufacturing business, HBC Engineering Solutions currently produces and assembles over 100 million plastic components and 140 million pressed metal components per year for many customers across a variety of industries, and their immediate success within our first year of trading following a management buyout, has provided HBC with a projected annual turnover of GBP 17 million.

The toolmaking service has created over GBP 1 million of sales through the design and manufacture of mould tools and press tools, with over forty years experience in the design and manufacture of tooling from low volume entry-level tools to high specification, complex tools for mass production requirements.

(HBS is in fact an active member of the Gauge and Toolmakers Association - GTMA).

HBC has owned Moldflow technology now for approximately 8 years.

The company has now recently added Performance Adviser to its suite of Moldflow Plastics Adviser (MPA) tools, allowing it to offer even more value to its customers across the complete process (product design, tooling design, processing etc), and it sees the Moldflow extension as a way of extending this service and added value to its customers.

Moldflow supports HBC's core competency which is moulding, and enables it to design for manufacture and implement digital tool trials early in its development process, it also allows HBC to understand how their designs perform in a manufacturing process, even before metal is cut.

"We see Moldflow as a pool of knowledge, this intellectual property helps us anticipate any potential problem".

"All of our moulds are so different and Moldflow allows us to minimise risk and ensure all tools run right first time by using this digital tool trial workflow", states Paul Blackmore, HBC Director HBC is the common interface to all of its suppliers, customers and vendors.

The company uses Moldflow to collaborate early in the process and ensure that every idea and opinion is heard, validated, tested and optimised.

The intellectual property is shared between all the interested parties which results in the best possible design at the lowest price possible.

"We never pass problems over the wall blindly", states Nick Braby, HBC Design Manager.

HBC has a proactive approach to all projects and Moldflow helps them minimise risk and go to market with confidence.

"We use Moldflow Plastic Adviser to select the right material which meets the customer's performance criteria and also meets our tight manufacturing requirements".

"We optimise the gate geometry and ensure that the material is not degraded due to poor gate design".

"The filling patterns allow us to aim for a balanced fill, while understanding where to vent and where weld lines are and the quality of these weld lines" says Braby.

"The digital tool trial process has worked very nicely for us and has saved HBC a large amount of development costs in engineering resources and consequently money, but also ensured that every design is right first time", says Paul Blackmore, HBC Director.

Moldflow Plastic Adviser is not just a development tool.

It is used throughout the complete process from art to part.

"We see this technology being used more and more throughout the business".

"Our processing engineers now use MPA to interpret results as if it was a tool trial".

"These results are then fed back into the Product development loop and the design is optimised".

"On high risk projects, MPA is used to eliminate risk and increase confidence internally and also by our customers and suppliers".

"It is also a great marketing tool which helps us close more business and gives confidence", concludes Braby.

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