Carbon Fiber Moulds or why you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear

The moulds used to make carbon fiber parts are frighteningly expensive if you want to make quality parts.  I know because I juggle the money.

This is me on a good day, you should have seen me on halloween.

Every imperfection in your mould is shown up on your parts so they have a perfect surface for a perfect part.  They also have to be able to withstand the production process and be capable of being used time after time without degradation.

Our moulds are lovingly made and live a life of total luxury.  They are pampered and cossetted because we can't make anything of value without them.   

Most of our valuable rally car moulds are made from high temperature tooling material; they are then sealed, polished to perfection and treated with a release agent. The whole process takes several days, lots of craftsman's time and many hours in our industrial oven.  They are a pleasure to touch but make sure any finger marks are polished off. 

These moulds are formed from a pattern which resembles the finished product with added flanges for the moulds.  Oh crikey, patterns; well there's a whole new topic.  "Design to pattern, how much swearing?", coming soon.

Our moulds for iPhone cases are made from highly polished steel.  The steel moulds are cut using CNC (computer numerical control) multi axis milling machines.  We outsource this work to specialists, apart from anything else my blood pressure would not withstand the cost of the CNC machine.

I may update this blog with more pictures but right now I'll leave you with the image of me above.