New firm will import large molds into U.K.New firm will import large molds into U.K.

Following the collapse of Penton Tools Ltd., High Wycombe, England, which was one of the few companies left in the country capable of making large injection molds, a new firm has been established to deliver such tools to U.K. processors.

Springer Rapid Industries, Coventry, England, which starts operation this month, will import molds from 5 to 185 tonnes, produced by six undisclosed German suppliers. “We’ll fill the gap in the big-[mold] market,” says Gordon Styles, one of the firm’s principals.

Styles, a U.K. entrepreneur (two years ago, he sold his rapid prototyping company to Arrk Product Development Group), failed in a last-minute rescue bid for Penton in early October. “There was no need for it to go the way it did.”

Styles notes that only one U.K. toolmaker now has the facilities and equipment to make molds over 14 tonnes. Of the seven large U.K. toolmakers that have disappeared in the last few years, he remarks that management gaffes forced the closures. “None of them went bust for lack of work,” he observes.

In the U.K., Penton Tools’ capability in large molds was matched only by Tooling Products, in Langrish. It was shuttered several months ago by The Weir Group, Glasgow, Scotland, and its assets were subsequently acquired by moldmaking giant Sermo Industries, Montaigu, France. The entity is now operating as Sermo UK Ltd., at reduced staff and manufacturing levels.

Despite reports of mold orders leaving for Asia and Eastern Europe, Styles says there is still plenty of business in the U.K. for large toolmakers, in white goods and automotive, among others. He says Springer Rapid already has work lined up.