When Future Advanced Manufacture (FAM) won an order to supply tooling and finished product for protective enclosures, it turned to DMS-Diemould for machining and hot runner support.

When Future Advanced Manufacture (FAM) won an order to supply both tooling and finished product for protective enclosures for high-value oil and gas exploration instrumentation, the company turned to DMS-Diemould for machining and hot runner support due to the weight and size of the mould tool required. The protective case in question is functional rather than just simple transit packaging, and has to be able to withstand impact in conditions that range from desert to Arctic temperatures as it remains in place until moments before the tool it protects is called into action. 'The design had to be robust,' said Jon Ellwood, project manager at the 45-employee company, 'particularly as it also required good impact strength.

However, the manufacture of the tooling was even more of a challenge.

Weighing in at 4.5 tonnes, we realised that it would take a 1200 tonf press (1.2MN) to produce the injection moulded cases - the logistics of this project were an achievement alone.' Realising that its own capabilities would be stretched, FAM turned to DMS, the UK manufacturer of standard and custom mould base and hot runner solutions, with which it has developed a partnership over the past few years.

'The standard of work and products supplied by DMS is consistently high,' said Ellwood.

'I was confident I could give DMS the order for the bolster and the large plate work as a package, which would leave us to concentrate on the core and cavity work.

As a company we have an established reputation as a provider of high quality solutions.

The clients for whom we have won quality assurance approvals include Airbus, Messier Dowty, Dowty Aerospace at Wolverhampton, Rolls Royce at Derby, GEC Alsthom, Schlumberger, Summit Medical , Slingsby Aviation, Sperry Sun UK and Pilkington Optronics, to name but a few'.

'Going to DMS on a project such as this presented no risk as we knew they would match our requirements and those of our customer.' Despite continuous re-investment in the latest machining centres at its own site, FAM also realised it could take advantage of the extensive machining facilities offered by DMS at its Devon facility.

'There was an exceptional amount of metal to remove from both the core and the cavity,' he said.

'DMS are set up for this type of machining whereas we often handle fine precision work.

It does not make sense to set-up for micron work one minute and then for hogging out large volumes of metal the next.' DMS also provided FAM with a bespoke hot runner system for the tool that was designed and developed in tandem between the two companies so that optimum manufacturing processes could be deployed.

'We held regular design reviews with our customer and DMS, as well as our tool and product designers to simplify the mould for ease of manufacture,' said Ellwood.

'This in turn helped keep costs to a minimum for all concerned.' The mould tool for the protective cover has now been finished and a production run of 200 was completed at the end of March 2006.

The successful tool worked first time without any 'tweaks', a result that Jon Ellwood admits is unusual for a project of this complexity.

The quantity produced will provide protection for an entire range of the end user's down-hole instruments.

The product life of the covers is as yet unknown and so further production runs may be required in the future.

'We are really pleased with the work carried out by DMS,' concluded Ellwood.

'In this instance our partnership with DMS allowed us to tackle a contract that would otherwise have been a struggle to complete single-handed.' Future Advanced Manufacture, formerly known as Iona Unitool, has over 25 years of history in supplying complete product support - designing and manufacturing both the end product and the mould tools, as well as handling production runs and associated fixtures - for a diverse range of industries that include aerospace, oil and gas, medical, defence and maritime.

'There is growing demand for customers that want one-stop-shop services in the true sense of the term,' explained Ellwood.

'We offer entire engineering projects, from initial concept through design, to full production.

Very few of our competitors can make this claim and so we have managed to develop a niche high technology market for ourselves.

We specialise in injection, gravity/pressure die and carbon fibre composite moulded components and their associated tooling.

We want to remain as diverse as we can and continue to employ specialist project engineers for each technology area.'