Custom Molds & Patterns
The Foundation for a Better Finished Part
Every quality fiberglass component starts with the right tooling.
Fiberglass Specialties provides custom molds and patterns for fiberglass and composite manufacturing, helping customers move from an idea, drawing or existing component to production-ready tooling.
Whether you’re developing a completely new product, replacing worn tooling or reproducing an existing component, our team can help create the foundation needed to manufacture your part accurately and consistently.
Custom Fiberglass Molds
Tooling Built Around Your Part
A fiberglass mold does more than establish the shape of a component. It can affect surface quality, dimensional consistency, production efficiency and the repeatability of every part produced from it.
Fiberglass Specialties develops custom molds based on the requirements of the finished component and the manufacturing process used to produce it.
From straightforward components to more complex shapes and contours, we approach tooling with the finished part—and its production requirements—in mind.
Custom Patterns
Turning a Design Into Something We Can Build
Before a mold can be created, a project may require a pattern that establishes the shape and form of the finished component.
Fiberglass Specialties can work with customers to develop custom patterns used in the mold-making process, providing the bridge between the original design and production tooling.
The goal is simple:
Create the right foundation so the finished part can be manufactured consistently.
Start With What You Have
Drawing, Part, Pattern or Idea
You don’t necessarily need finished tooling—or even a finished design—before talking with us.
Customers come to Fiberglass Specialties at different stages of development.
You may have:
- An existing component
- Drawings or specifications
- An existing pattern
- An older mold that needs replacement
- A prototype
- A new product concept
We’ll start with what you have and help determine what’s needed to move the project toward production.
From Existing Part to New Tooling
Need to Reproduce a Component?
Sometimes the challenge isn’t designing something new.
It’s reproducing something that already exists.
A component may be discontinued. Original tooling may be unavailable. An existing mold may have reached the end of its useful life. Or you may need to establish your own source for an important production component.
Fiberglass Specialties can evaluate an existing part and determine the tooling requirements for reproducing the component.
Once appropriate tooling has been developed, we can also discuss manufacturing the finished fiberglass parts.
Tooling Designed for the Manufacturing Process
The Mold and the Process Work Together
The right tooling depends heavily on how the finished component will be manufactured.
Fiberglass Specialties offers multiple fiberglass manufacturing processes, allowing tooling decisions to be made with the actual production method in mind.
Closed Mold Tooling
RTM and LRTM use matched tooling to create controlled mold cavities for repeatable composite production.
Open Mold Tooling
Spray-up and hand lay-up processes typically use single-sided molds, providing flexibility for a wide variety of custom fiberglass components.
By considering the manufacturing process during tooling development, we can create molds that support both the design of the component and the way it needs to be produced.
From Tooling to Production
One Manufacturing Partner
Developing a mold is often only the beginning.
Once the tooling is ready, Fiberglass Specialties can use that tooling to manufacture your custom fiberglass parts and components.
Keeping tooling and production connected provides an important advantage: we’re developing the mold with an understanding of how it will actually be used on the manufacturing floor.
That means we’re thinking beyond the mold itself.
We’re thinking about the finished part.
New Products & Product Development
Give Your Idea a Way to Take Shape
A new product doesn’t begin on a production line.
It begins with an idea.
Turning that idea into a repeatable manufactured component requires decisions about design, materials, tooling and production processes.
Fiberglass Specialties can work with customers during that transition, helping determine how a fiberglass component can move from concept toward practical production.
You bring the product knowledge.
We bring the fiberglass manufacturing experience.
Replacement Molds & Tooling
When Your Existing Tooling Has Done Its Job
Production tooling doesn’t last forever.
Repeated use, age, damage and changing production requirements can eventually make an existing mold less effective or unsuitable for continued manufacturing.
If you’re working with aging or damaged fiberglass tooling, Fiberglass Specialties can evaluate the project and discuss options for replacement.
New tooling may also provide an opportunity to address changes that have been made to the component since the original mold was developed.
Built With Production in Mind
More Than 30 Years of Fiberglass Manufacturing Experience
Fiberglass Specialties has worked with fiberglass and composite manufacturing since 1992.
That matters when developing tooling because we don’t look at a mold as an isolated product.
We look at what needs to come out of it.
Our experience with open molding, closed molding, custom parts and production manufacturing gives us a practical perspective on how tooling and manufacturing work together.
Let's Build the Foundation for Your Next Part
Whether you’re starting with a drawing, an existing component, an old mold or a new idea, talk to Fiberglass Specialties about what you’re trying to manufacture.
We’ll help determine the next step toward creating the tooling—and the parts—you need.