Fresh from the cutting edge of F1 and endurance sports car racing Ian Thomson and Dr Rob Neumann have teamed up with Indian businessman Parag Rajda to offer quality composites products at cost effective pricing from a newly opened purpose built facility in a Special Economic Zone at Sachin, Surat, Gujarat, India.
Gujarat is the manufacturing power house of India, the recently opened Tata car plant is situated within the state. Surat is 300kms north of Mumbai, it is a textiles district with over 750,000 weaving looms it is also a worldwide centre for diamond polishing and jewellery manufacture. It is from this local textiles/garment and diamond/jewellery industry that Moldex has been able to recruit staff who are already experienced in working with fabrics and in addition accustomed to detailed high quality handwork. Surat is on the west coast 300kms North of Mumbai and its international air and sea ports. There are also daily flights from Surat to New Dehli.
Moldex are able to take full ownership from concept to finished part. A “one stop” seamless service.
Detail designing, material choice, laminate design, pattern, mould and jig design and manufacture.
Build to print: if customers know exactly what they want, then Moldex can put it into production.
In pursuit of complete support Moldex has the following technology capabilities and manufacturing facilities. For design and development, Dassault Systems CAD software Catia V5 is implemented across the company. Moldex utilises the industry recognised standard software PowerMill from Delcam for CNC programming. Co-ordinate Measuring is provided using PowerInspect software also from Delcam combined with a high quality touch probe on our 5 axis CMS Ares CNC using the principal of “on machine verification”. To streamline manufacturing and minimise material usage Gemini software is used for digitising and editing of hand or CAD produced templates, which are then nested to optimise material usage before cutting.
Moldex is familiar and able to work with all the usual range of high performance fibres, resins, sandwich construction and thermoplastics. Moldex is initially specialising in hand lamination and autoclave or oven curing of parts made from either and/or carbon* & glass fibre/epoxy prepreg. (*also known as graphite fiber). Current alternative process is Resin Film Infusion with toughened epoxy and the possibility of an epoxy resin film reinforced with Carbon Nano Tubes for extra fracture toughness.
Moldex is particularly proud of its Class 8 Clean Room dedicated to prepreg. laminating and vacuum bagging. With floor area of 120sqm, it is a fully temperature, humidity and dust controlled area, with an airlock entry/exit to restrict contamination. From there parts are taken for processing in a 1.5m diameter, 4.5m long Autoclave with a temperature capability of 220C and 10 bar pressure. This autoclave has state of the art full PLC programming & data recording. Storage of prepreg materials is in two, fully monitored, large walk in freezers, one for stock the other for materials being used in the current manufacturing cycle.
Within the production hall is the CMS Ares 5-axis CNC machine mentioned above which plays a big part in making Moldex Composites as self sufficient as possible. We can keep full control of the whole tooling and part manufacturing process. The Ares is a machine configured particularly for use in the composites industry. Ideal for machining of epoxy Tooling Block patterns, wooden patterns, aluminium tools, jigs & fixtures, final machining and trimming of composite components.
For correct bonding preparation Moldex has a Vapormatt wet grit blasting machine. It is situated in a dedicated bond preparation workshop which is one of four interconnected workshops for trimming, assembly and finishing of patterns, moulds and components. Above which is a substantial area for future expansion in addition to the area reserved for expansion on the ground floor within the 1600sqm facility.
Moldex primary aim is manufacturing however utilising our technical staffs’ wide experience Moldex if required can take on full turnkey packages* such as - Road/race car chassis (sports and single seat) including design, manufacture and testing of crash structures. Bodywork, steering wheels, wings, suspension, engine ancillaries‘ (pipes, intake, oil & water tanks), seating, furniture, ladders, electronic boxes, ducting, bicycle frames. Component assemblies or individual parts for road and race motorbikes, marine, road and race cars, aerospace, wind turbines, aircraft, helicopters, satellite parts, satellite dishes, scale models, medical, industrial machinery, film camera equipment etc.
*To realise larger projects Moldex can call upon a wide network of design, FEA and CAD support
Moldex aim is to fulfil customer’s complete composite requirements, dreams and desires.
Our ambition is to be a world market player and India’s nr 1 choice for high performance composite solutions.
Moldex are happy to offer not only volume production, but bespoke, prototypes, and short runs. Customers should use the India based manufacturing facility to best value advantage whether for that extra special one off or a multi-year series
Moldex market supply split is planned as 40% aerospace, 40% automotive/motorsport, 20% other. Moldex currently manufacturing various automotive panels and prototyping aerospace components. ISO 9001 and AS9100 certification implementation in progress.
Manufacturing is looked after by Ian (Technical Director). Administration and finance is in the hands of Parag (Managing Director).Harry Street (Product Development), Dr Rob is our “wandering” design expert. As of November 2010 Moldex have circa 30 personnel including 20 laminators & fitters. Over the next 12 months the workforce is planned to expand to between 40 and 60, potentially 80 plus. Moldex have hired a local fully experienced Delcam CAM programmer and a 5 axis CNC machine operator.
http://www.jeccomposites.com/composites-news/7858/Moldex-Composites-India.html