Bridging the gap

The plan is to integrate certain of its larger mould tool operations in-house by gaining the advantage from the machine's high specification, rigidity and working volume of 4,060mm x 2,150mm x 800mm.

As part of its continuous investment programme, the Wele LB421 is installed at its Hereford facility in a purpose-refurbished toolroom and a highly skilled programmer/setter has been recruited. The building is also being equipped with ancillary equipment to handle large and often complex mould tools as part of its capability to produce rubber mouldings weighing up to 5kg and mould tools up to 1,750mm by 3,900mm.

Managing director Simon Children comments: “We selected the Wele machine as our flagship investment not only due to the specification fitting our requirements, but also, because 2D CNC fully understood our needs and has continued to provide high levels of ongoing support as we develop our toolroom operation.”

Built up over 30 years, TRP is a private company employing a total of 750 people worldwide with 320 people based in the UK where all design and process engineering takes place. There is a service support operation in Romania and factories in Pune, India and Guangde, Anhui Province in China where manufacturing is carried out for the Middle East and Asia.

TRP is a supplier to the automotive sector and a major supplier to the electronics, medical, marine, power generation, oil and gas, aerospace and defence industries. It has extensive capabilities in materials specification and development such as tailoring special polymers to suit specific and often difficult applications.

With its own in-house tool design, this is supported with a prototyping service where the latest rapid prototyping equipment including laser and 3D printing is installed. It also has the facility to provide bonded metal parts.
The Wele LB (Large Bridge) 421 has a 4,000mm by 2,000mm table with a load capacity of 15 tonnes supported by ultra-heavy, triple roller guideways on the X-axis. The TRP machine is specified with the optional 26kW, 15,000rpm gear driven, direct drive spindle. It has a 32 tool capacity as standard and is fitted with Fanuc 31iMB control.

2D CNC
www.2DCNC.co.uk