Vacuum Castings

Paragon's vacuum casting service offers you the opportunity to have production intent components for the development stage. Using an unrivalled range of rigid and elastomeric polyurethane resins we can replicate virtually any production material, including polypropylene, polycarbonate, ABS, nylon and rubbers.

Vacuum castings are produced from silicone rubber tools, which exactly replicate the geometry and surface detail of the SL master models. Silicone tools are designed with steel or aluminium inserts in order to accurately reproduce intricate details, bosses and through holes. The typical expected yield from a silicone tool is for 20-25 castings, though this is dependant on part complexity and material choice. Paragon have invested extensively in R&D and subsequently have been able to extend tool life for up to 50 castings with specific materials and tooling techniques.

Vacuum castings can be used for either fit and function testing, marketing and sales aids for new products or as a low volume production alternative.

New products added to the range include a glass filled material to simulate glass filled nylon and a UV stable crystal clear material that has superb optical properties for lens and light guide production. Also a new comprehensive range of clear rubber materials from 42 shoreA up to 90 shoreA is now available, allowing accurate colour matching of rubber components or elastomeric overmoulding, which has previously been limited by the base colours of the resins.

Components upto 820x520x500mm can be produced with our vacuum casting systems. Larger components can be produced in sections and then bonded together. Castings can also include the overmoulding or incapsulation of inserts and substrates.

Our in house colour mixing facility provides the opportunity to pigment the materials to Pantone, RAL or BS references or individually mixed to match swatches and corporate colours. This also applies to the colouration or tinting of clear parts to varying depths of translucency. Subsequent castings will closely represent the colour, surface finish and mechanical properties of the intended production parts. 

Our model makers attention to detail ensures that the vacuum castings are accurate to the original master model and components produced as assemblies are always trial fitted prior to despatch.

Parts can be sprayed to achieve metallic finishes or vacuum metalized with a "chrome effect" finish and graphics can be produced from 2D artwork and applied to represent screen or pad printing.