The end of March completes 9 months of our business year for 2017/18. It is 9 months since we moved into a modern, spacious premises in Warwick! We’ve also had the opportunity to strengthen our relationship with existing customers and take on some interesting new projects too. Every year brings challenges and throws up obstacles as well as blessings, and the past year is no exception. But we are very proud of how our team has risen to the occasion, with a work ethic and level of commitment that would do any employer proud.
New Vehicles In 2017/18
In the wider industry we have seen some really stunning vehicles unveiled this year. It is hard to say which one is our favourite, but the cars which were premiered at the recent Geneva International Motor Show are a good cross-section of what the industry has to offer globally. There were a selection of practical city vehicles, family cars, concept machines and supercars. As for trends, 2017/18 has seen the birth of the fully electric vehicle as a mainstream car – not just the preserve of eccentrics, hippies or tech savvy customer.
Emerging Trends
All along the motorways in the UK, charging stations have sprung up in pride of place in service station car parks, while many office buildings are hurrying to accommodate employees who drive to work in electric vehicles. The demand for electric and hybrid cars is rising fast and the price in real terms is steadily dropping. New innovations in 2018/19 will undoubtedly make this latest generation of cars more accessible and efficient than ever before.
Our Project Highlights
The trends affecting the industry are the combined result of thousands of different companies each applying their unique skill set to a specific area of automobile design and manufacture. Our area of expertise is low-volume interior, exterior plastics and body sealing products.
Of the projects we have been directly involved with this year, we are particularly proud of these two:
Rear light lens, bezel & interfacing grille mouldings
We really enjoyed our involvement in this futuristic looking rear light lens, along with the bezel and interfacing grille mouldings for a leading premium car manufacturer. The component features a high gloss ‘piano black’ finish and a optically pure polycarbonate lens. The finish was carried out to the highest quality with diamond polishing tools of the mould tooling.
Front grille
The pictures below show a complex front grille we supply for one of the UK’s premium automotive manufacturers. It was without doubt one of our project highlights from last year. The grille had a complex geometry that required a level of tolerance greater than the industry standard. In addition, the customer wanted a high gloss black painted surface finish, which was an uncompromising optical finish.
It took some thought to achieve the right result, but we achieved the component by using a 15 drop sequentially gated hot runner system to fill the complex grille geometry.
Rising To The Challenge
Both of these projects were unusual and technically challenging. However, both were achieved with a pragmatic combination of rigorous design, the right tooling, careful material selection and product control – as well as skilled processes on the part of our engineers. To discuss your own project requirements, please call +44 (0) 1926 499508, or send an email to enquiries@opusproducts.com.