Moulding expansion

Rutland-based mould tooling company

has raised £450,000 in funding to trial its changeable moulds for carbon-fibre composite technology and expand its customer base.

Members of Oxford Investment Opportunity Network (OION) have provided £140,000 as part of the funding round, matched by the same amount from Bank of Scotland Corporate’s Growth Capital team.

Surface Generation has developed an innovative technology that creates easily changeable moulds for carbon-fibre composite tooling, which companies can use to make the parts and components for manufacturing processes that previously required individually created, expensive moulds.

Surface Generation’s near-net shape pin-tooling technology is used to produce expendable ceramic and polymeric patterns for prototyping, while its subtractive pin-tooling technology is used to create metallic tools for production components.

Surface Generation’s products are particularly aimed at industries working with carbon-fibre components, notably aerospace. When a new design is being prototyped, Surface Generation’s technology allows the moulds to be reconfigured and immediately re-used to accommodate changes in the specification of components.