13/06/2023
Reducing Costs by Moulding Own Products – Advanced Air
For many years we’ve had the pleasure of working with Advanced Air, producing tooling and mouldings for a variety of their air distribution products.
The Company
Advanced Air are based in Thetford and manufacture a wide range of energy efficient air distribution and fire safety products. Their products include air diffusers, fire and smoke dampers, fan coil units and volume control dampers.
The Problem
During a site visit, the company mentioned one of their products, which used an ‘off the shelf’ electrical enclosure. This was an expensive manufacturing method, as because it wasn’t custom made, it required modification to make it suitable for application.
We are always looking for ways to help our clients where possible and asked if they'd ever thought about making their own enclosures. This led to a discussion about tooling a bespoke enclosure. Not only would this be tailored to their specific product but significantly reduce the cost of parts.
What we did
To turn this idea into a reality, we presented Advanced Air with a clear estimate of the expenditure for tooling and part costs, to calculate a return on investment. We discovered that the cost of tooling would be recuperated within the first 9 months of production, and more savings would be generated from no longer buying parts of the shelf.
Advanced Air submitted a concept CAD model, and we collaborated with them to feedback improving the design for manufacture, suitability for injection moulding, and the product requirements.
Once the design was finalised, it was time to create some samples. The tooling and sample parts were delivered on time and in line with the exact specification. Following sign off from Advanced Air, we carried out a successful first production run and have been running manufacture with the tooling ever since.
The outcome
“Bowles and Walker are always helpful and open about all aspects of the moulding process and happy to answer any questions we may have. We would certainly recommend Bowles and Walker to any other company that requires plastic injection moulded parts.” - Jon McIvor, Marketing & Design Manager, Advanced Air
Here at Bowles & Walker we like to support our customers in any way that we can. If you’d like to reduce your production costs and support UK manufacturers, we’d be happy to help! For more information about our services please call us on 01953 885294 or email info@bowles-walker.com.
