Calder Guitar Case Story Ch 17 Summer update
August 05
Everyone going on holiday...frustrating month.
Gig Bag prototype tool is being made up in the North of England - should be ready 19th Sept - nothing to do but be patient with this one.
Hard Case outer shell - processing the CURV polyprop material for the shell is tricky - its a new material and few companies have processed it. Hoped to run trials in Italy but then it seemed the people there couldn't do it. NetComposites boss Gordon Bishop suggested making a trial moulding tool but at first pass I rejected this as it seemed too expensive and time consuming. Told him I would probably just go ahead and make a full size aluminium production tool and hope that it worked....
Hopes raised when heard from CURV manufacturer that a major luggage manufacturer was launching a range of cases made in CURV. It seemed these people would let us come and see what they were doing. I was hopeful that seeing their production line would give me the confidence to go ahead with our product. More frustration when the company declared they were too busy to see us - come back in 3 months they said...great (not).
Hard Case interior - another challenging component. We want to make the core of the case and the lining all in one shot. This is a known process but we can't find anyone doing it at the moment. So more hours web trawling and more phone calls. I get lucky with a great guy Bob Collins from Bayer MaterialScience. He knows almost everyone in this line of business and gives me lots of leads - some of whom are encouragingly positive. Others worry me by telling me all the problems involved and the high cost of tooling...fuck why did I ever start this project?
Sept - at last the holiday season ends...kids are going to school and people to work.
Webtrawl picks up John Mcloughlin a plastics consultant who's also a musician. He gives a load of information (some of which I understand) and another bunch of possible leads. Seem to hit jackpot with Thompson Plastics- talk to their Group Projects Manager Iain Douglas - he's direct and to the point. Tells me they can do and why don't they do the hard shell as well?
This can do attitude is what I need. This week they should get back to me with quotes for tooling and processing.
Out of the blue comes an email from Giacomo dal Busco at the Italian company Engineering Team. He's back from holiday and they've run some trials with CURV using our prototype mould. They used a diaphragm machine (imagine a huge tough balloon that presses the preheated material over the mould. Because of this technique the definition is poor but the great thing for me is that there is no folding. Its these tight corners that are the most difficult to mould CURV round...hey maybe this thing is going to work after all. Here's a pic Giacomo sent - you get an idea of how the CURV material looks.
category: early development
Calder blog homepage
Calder website homepage
Everyone going on holiday...frustrating month.
Gig Bag prototype tool is being made up in the North of England - should be ready 19th Sept - nothing to do but be patient with this one.
Hard Case outer shell - processing the CURV polyprop material for the shell is tricky - its a new material and few companies have processed it. Hoped to run trials in Italy but then it seemed the people there couldn't do it. NetComposites boss Gordon Bishop suggested making a trial moulding tool but at first pass I rejected this as it seemed too expensive and time consuming. Told him I would probably just go ahead and make a full size aluminium production tool and hope that it worked....
Hopes raised when heard from CURV manufacturer that a major luggage manufacturer was launching a range of cases made in CURV. It seemed these people would let us come and see what they were doing. I was hopeful that seeing their production line would give me the confidence to go ahead with our product. More frustration when the company declared they were too busy to see us - come back in 3 months they said...great (not).
Hard Case interior - another challenging component. We want to make the core of the case and the lining all in one shot. This is a known process but we can't find anyone doing it at the moment. So more hours web trawling and more phone calls. I get lucky with a great guy Bob Collins from Bayer MaterialScience. He knows almost everyone in this line of business and gives me lots of leads - some of whom are encouragingly positive. Others worry me by telling me all the problems involved and the high cost of tooling...fuck why did I ever start this project?
Sept - at last the holiday season ends...kids are going to school and people to work.
Webtrawl picks up John Mcloughlin a plastics consultant who's also a musician. He gives a load of information (some of which I understand) and another bunch of possible leads. Seem to hit jackpot with Thompson Plastics- talk to their Group Projects Manager Iain Douglas - he's direct and to the point. Tells me they can do and why don't they do the hard shell as well?
This can do attitude is what I need. This week they should get back to me with quotes for tooling and processing.
Out of the blue comes an email from Giacomo dal Busco at the Italian company Engineering Team. He's back from holiday and they've run some trials with CURV using our prototype mould. They used a diaphragm machine (imagine a huge tough balloon that presses the preheated material over the mould. Because of this technique the definition is poor but the great thing for me is that there is no folding. Its these tight corners that are the most difficult to mould CURV round...hey maybe this thing is going to work after all. Here's a pic Giacomo sent - you get an idea of how the CURV material looks.
category: early development
Calder blog homepage
Calder website homepage
posted by Nick CC at
12:53 PM
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