We mould plastic parts down to 0.06 g, with wall sections and features as small as 0.1 mm and tolerances held to 0.01 mm, on a dedicated micro moulding machine at our Haverhill facility, with the tooling designed and cut in our own toolroom.
What is Micro Moulding?
Micro moulding is injection moulding at the small end of the scale: tiny components, or larger parts carrying features so fine that a conventional moulding setup cannot fill or eject them reliably. Small clips, gears, connectors, microfluidic detail, medical micro-components and precision features all sit in this territory.
At this scale the part design decides the outcome long before the machine does. A 0.1 mm wall or a 0.1 mm rib has to be fed, filled, packed and then ejected without damage, and the material has to be chosen to do it. That is why we give design-for-manufacture feedback before any steel is cut rather than after the first trial fails.
We run micro work on a BOY XS, a small-shot machine built for exactly this, so tiny parts are not being made on a machine sized for something else. Tooling is designed and cut in our own toolroom in Haverhill. Read more in What Is Micro Moulding?
Who This Service Is For
- Design engineers with a small or fine-featured part that other moulders have turned down.
- Medical device, diagnostics and laboratory product companies needing micro-components in named grades.
- Engineers who need a fine feature or a tight dimension held repeatably, batch after batch.
- Buyers who need precision small parts in hundreds and thousands rather than millions.
Common Problems We Solve
- “The thin walls and small features will not fill.” This is the most common micro failure, and it is usually solved in the part design and the material choice, not on the machine.
- “We have been told our part is too small to mould.” Send it to us. If it is genuinely beyond moulding we will tell you that too.
- “We need a medical-grade polymer but nowhere near medical volumes.” We run named medical grades at low and medium volumes.
- “Our current supplier cannot hold the dimension repeatably.” Repeatability at this scale comes from tool precision and a controlled process, and it is the whole point of the job.
- “We do not know what a micro tool costs or how long it takes.” Both are on this page, before you have to ask.
Our Process
Capabilities, Materials & Tolerances
Indicative capability. Every project is reviewed individually, so talk to us about your specific tolerances and materials.
| Smallest part moulded | From 0.06 g |
|---|---|
| Smallest wall section | 0.1 mm, achieved in production |
| Smallest feature | 0.1 mm holes, ribs and bosses |
| Tightest tolerance held | 0.01 mm, depending on material, feature and geometry |
| Micro moulding machine | BOY XS, 11 ton clamp, dedicated to small-shot work |
| Materials run | Named grades we have moulded include TOPAS 5013S-04 (cyclic olefin copolymer), Purell HP570R (medical-grade PP), Ultraform N 2320 003 PRO AT (medical-grade acetal), Santoprene 8281-35MED (medical-grade TPV) and Nilamid B3 CU90 (90% copper-filled PA6) |
| Tooling | Designed and cut in-house, typically 4 to 6 weeks, from around £2,500 |
| First-off parts | 5 to 10 working days from approved tool |
| Minimum order | From 500 parts. Below that, injection moulding rarely makes financial sense and we will say so |
| Inspection | Vision Engineering optical inspection, with logged dimensional and visual checks and full traceability under ISO 9001 |
| Not suitable for | Nano-scale work below 0.1 mm features or 0.05 g, and we do not run PEEK |
Industries This Service Supports
Why Choose Us
- A machine built for small shots, not a large machine asked to make a small part.
- Tool design, toolmaking and moulding under one roof, so DFM advice arrives before steel is cut rather than after a failed trial.
- Named medical grades run at realistic volumes, including USP Class VI and ISO 10993 listed polymers.
- Optical inspection, logged tolerance and visual checks and full traceability under our ISO 9001 system.
- Customers who move to us from elsewhere tend to say the same two things: better communication, and more flexibility.
- Established 1978, and you deal directly with the people who make the parts.