Pause, Pivot, Positive: No Supply Chain Disruptions for Precision Board

Pause. Pivot. Positive. It is a conflict management system devised by Kerry Wekelo, but it can easily be applied to how businesses are responding to the Coronavirus Pandemic. Here at Coastal Enterprises we are focusing on tangible actions we can take to support you during these challenging times. We will be sharing frequent blogs with different ways you can pause and pivot to the positive with Precision Board.

This week’s ‘Pause, Pivot, Positive’ blog focuses on how Coastal Enterprises being a fully United States integrated company means no supply chain disruptions and readily available Precision Board to keep your projects on track and on time.

Coastal Enterprises manufactures Precision Board and is a privately-owned company, located in California. Our manufacturing processes are fully integrated in the United States which has allowed us to avoid supply chain disruptions and maintain unparalleled market stability. While other materials become harder to keep in stock, Precision Board remains readily available and shipping in a matter of days, not weeks.

Precision Board is a high-density urethane tooling board used in a number of different applications including composite tooling, prototyping, thermoform tooling, pattern making, theming, architectural, dimensional signage and more. It is currently being used in many essential industries including aerospace, defense, transportation, energy and healthcare.

With the fastest turnaround times in the industry, more density options than any other competitor and customizable solutions available; these essential industries are more eager than ever to learn about the benefits of Precision Board tooling board.

To find out more about how we can help your business in these unusual times, shoot us an email at hdu@precisionboard.com or give us a call at (800) 845-0745.

You might be surprised at what you can accomplish with a little help from your friends at Coastal.

Coastal Enterprises manufactures Precision Board, a versatile, cost-effective and eco-friendly urethane material used extensively in the tooling industry.  It is a closed-cell, rigid, dimensionally-stable substrate that is ideal for use in a number of different tooling applications.

Request free samplesget a quote or sign up for weekly e-blasts packed with helpful information.

Pause, Pivot, Positive: Our Custom Services Save Time, Money & Labor Costs

Pause. Pivot. Positive. It is a conflict management system devised by Kerry Wekelo, but it can easily be applied to how businesses are responding to the Coronavirus Pandemic. Here at Coastal Enterprises we are focusing on tangible actions we can take to support you during these challenging times. We will be sharing frequent blogs with different ways you can pause and pivot to the positive with Precision Board.

This week’s ‘Pause, Pivot, Positive’ blog focuses on using our custom services to not only save you time and money, but reduce the amount of labor required to handle the job.

One thing we all share in common these days is that we are all learning to operate with less. Whether it’s less workers, less inventory or less toilet paper; we’re all learning to adapt.

If you’re like most companies, you are feeling the strain of maintaining the same high-quality standard of work, but with less staff. Coastal Enterprises can help! Let us custom cut your sheets or bond blocks to near net shape. By having us custom bond a near net shape step tool, we can help reduce your labor burden, machining time and overall job cost.

Having us do the work means that you don’t need as many hands working on a bonding job. Fewer hands means more time and resources for other projects, with no extra workers required to come into the shop to complete a Precision Board HDU project.

To find out more about our custom services and how we can help your business in these unusual times, give us a call at (800) 845-0745 or shoot us an email at hdu@precisionboard.com.

You might be surprised at what you can accomplish with a little help from your friends at Coastal.

pivot

Coastal Enterprises manufactures Precision Board, a versatile, cost-effective and eco-friendly urethane material used extensively in the tooling industry.  It is a closed-cell, rigid, dimensionally-stable substrate that is ideal for use in a number of different tooling applications.

Request free samplesget a quote or sign up for weekly e-blasts packed with helpful information.

Pause, Pivot, Positive: Tapping Into New Markets

Pause. Pivot. Positive. It is a conflict management system devised by Kerry Wekelo, but it can easily be applied to how businesses are responding to the Coronavirus Pandemic. Here at Coastal Enterprises we are focusing on tangible actions we can take to support you during these challenging times. We will be sharing frequent blogs with different ways you can pause and pivot to the positive with Precision Board.

This week’s ‘Pause, Pivot, Positive’ blog focuses on ways to tap into new markets, make new products and attract new customers using readily available Precision Board Urethane Tooling.

As we all figure out how to move forward in the new normal, what has become clear is that those who can adapt quickly and pivot to supporting immediate market needs are not only surviving, but in many cases thriving.  When it comes to shifting your resources to produce new products, Precision Board can help make your idea a reality.

Precision Board is a perfect substrate for:

  • Prototypes
  • Quick Molds
  • Masters
  • Production Tools

With 16 different density options (all available in high temp or low temp formulations), we have a Precision Board option that can help bring your idea from design through proof of concept and into production in a matter of days, not weeks.

Give us a call at 800-845-0745 or shoot us an email at hdu@precisionboard.com to discuss how we can help you pause and pivot to positive with Precision Board.  We’d love to hear from you!

Coastal Enterprises manufactures Precision Board, a versatile, cost-effective and eco-friendly urethane material used extensively in the tooling industry.  It is a closed-cell, rigid, dimensionally-stable substrate that is ideal for use in a number of different tooling applications.

Request free samplesget a quote or sign up for weekly e-blasts packed with helpful information.

Composites and Advanced Materials Expo (CAMX) Wrap

Coastal Enterprises was on hand exhibiting at this year’s Composites and Advanced Materials Expo (CAMX), held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California.  We talked to a lot of people who had great questions about using Precision Board urethane tooling board for their upcoming projects.  Here’s a wrap up of our time at the trade show, including some trends and top questions, and a shout out to our distributors who were on hand at the show.

camx

We have some fun real-life examples of how our urethane tooling board material is used in the composites industry, including this master mold for a wing flap fabricated from our PBLT-15 Precision Board.  It shows the various stages of the mold making process, from rough machining to finish machining and then coating with Duratec Primer.  The photo on the right shows the final finished wing flap.

We had plenty of samples on hand of various densities of Precision Board in both our low-temp PBLT (<200ºF) and our high-temp PBHT (<300ºF).  Coastal Enterprises now offers 16 densities, ranging from 4lb up to 75lb.  Our brand new density is PBLT-25/PBHT-25.

This year at CAMX we were lucky enough to have a sample on hand of a boat hull prototype made from Precision Board urethane tooling board.  The entire surface is coated with Duratec Primer and then sanded and wet sanded and partially covered in high-gloss Top Coat on one half to show the different coating options (seen in the photo on the far right).  You can really tell the difference between the two halves when viewing this sample piece in person.  Coastal Enterprises is proud to partner with Hawkeye Industries, manufacturer of Duratec coatings.

Several members of our distributor network were also on hand at the show exhibiting, including Composites One, Northern Composites, Professional Plastics, Plastics Materials Inc. and RevChem Composites.  All of these distributors carry Precision Board urethane tooling board and can be contacted with questions about pricing and availability.

Some of our manufacturing team went down to the CAMX show to check out the latest happenings in composites and advanced materials.  They were particularly fond of the Predator replica in the RevChem Composites booth.  Made using various urethane materials provided by RevChem, this statue is an example of the work they do within the film and television industry for prop-making.

Trends at CAMX

Soft Tooling: With tighter timelines and deeper exploration into ways to process composite materials, soft tooling is becoming more popular than ever.  Soft tooling (like Precision Board urethane) over hard tooling (metals like steel, aluminum and invar) has made a huge difference when it comes to short production runs and has given the industry greater flexibility when it comes to design changes and cost savings in terms of time and labor.  The change from hard tooling to soft tooling was a long time coming, but it’s already made an impact on the composites industry and Coastal Enterprises has been there since the beginning.  Interested to learn more about how Precision Board can fit into your soft tooling needs?  Call our knowledgeable sales staff with your technical questions, get a quote or learn more about how our custom-bonded layup tools can save you time and money.

The advantages of using soft tooling are as follows:

  1. Shorter Machining Time
  2. Less Wear on Your Machine
  3. Lighter Weight
  4. Easily Accommodates Design Changes
  5. Lower Overall Project Cost
  6. Shorter Overall Tool Production Time

Advanced Composites: Coastal Enterprises distributor Composites One was on hand as a member of the Closed Molds Alliance (comprised of three industry experts: Composites One, Magnum Venus Products, and RTM North Technologies).  They were talking about closed molding versus open molding.  More and more manufacturers are making the switch and Precision Board should be in the mix when considering your options. The conversion to closed molding is the practical solution for ensuring competitiveness and long-term growth. Changing from open to closed molding can offer many benefits, including:

  • Reduced waste and emissions, which leads to a cleaner, healthier environment as well as lower material and disposal costs.
  • A more consistent, repeatable process, which makes composites more competitive than alternative materials.
  • Reduced cycle times, which leads to higher productivity and lower labor costs.

With a range of density options up to 75 pcf and a high-temp option (continuous temperatures up to 300ºF), Precision Board urethane tooling board is a great choice for use in advanced composites applications.  Give us a call to find out more.

Questions at CAMX

One-off Tooling Vs Production Tooling: Many questions about production style tooling were asked this year.  People wanted to know if Precision Board could be used for short run one-off tooling or production style tooling.  It absolutely can!  Coastal offers sixteen densities of Precision Board urethane tooling board with the higher-end densities (75 pcf on the high end) more suited for production style tooling.

Why Coastal: As people explore all their options for tooling, they oftentimes want to know why they should go with Precision Board urethane tooling board over other tooling boards.  We’re happy to answer the question as we offer the most options and flexibility of any tooling board company in the market.

When you go with Precision Board, you get the Coastal Advantage:

  • 16 densities of Precision Board in high-temp and low-temp.
  • 8 sheet sizes ranging from 20″x60″ to 5’x10′.
  • Thickness ranging from 1/2″ to 24″ in ANY increment.
  • Fast turnaround of DAYS not weeks.
  • Custom-bonding of step-tools and blocks.
  • Free technical support.
  • Distributor network.
  • Protective packaging of your order.

We’ll be baaaack next year in Florida for CAMX 2020 and hope to see you there!

Coastal Enterprises manufactures Precision Board, a versatile, cost-effective and eco-friendly urethane material used extensively in the tooling industry.  It is a closed-cell, rigid, dimensionally-stable substrate that is ideal for use in a number of different tooling applications.

Request free samplesget a quote or sign up for weekly e-blasts packed with helpful information.

National Composites Week – Soft Tooling and Composites

National Composites Week is designed to introduce young people and others in the community to the composites industry, the career opportunities available, and demonstrate the contributions composites make to the local, national and global economy.  Coastal Enterprises manufactures Precision Board, a high-density urethane tooling board used extensively in composites, including industries like aerospace, automotive and marine and in a variety of applications including molds and prototypes. 

We’ll be sharing various ways that Coastal supports composites throughout the week.

Today’s Topic: What is soft tooling and how has it changed the composites industry?

Soft tooling (like Precision Board urethane) over hard tooling (metals like steel, aluminum and invar) has made a huge difference when it comes to short production runs and has given the industry greater flexibility when it comes to design changes and cost savings in terms of time and labor.  The change from hard tooling to soft tooling was a long time coming, but it’s already made an impact on the composites industry and Coastal Enterprises has been there since the beginning.

national composites week

The Transition from Hard Tooling to Soft Tooling

Formerly a composites engineer at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works (Palmdale, Calif.), Jon Sharp is a legendary air racer.  While many of the projects Jon was involved in at Lockheed are still classified, he was heavily involved in the now-declassified Lockheed Martin/Boeing RQ-3 Darkstar UAV program. An early precursor to modern day UAV’s, Darkstar was designed as a high-altitude endurance UAV with stealth technology. This project, with Jon’s leadership and dedicated team, was the first time high density polyurethane was used for tooling on a government contract job, a pioneering move that allowed Sharp and his team to complete their project on time and on budget. It helped to pave the way for the large amount of high-density urethane tooling board seen today in the aerospace and composites industries.

Jon shared his thoughts on what it meant to switch from the time-consuming tooling methods they were accustomed to, to the lighter, more nimble high density urethane:

“90{afbea94bd31582343c3017644f03ec8d7d8fa2386ecb82c250661e06c0c6e111} of the tooling for Darkstar was made from 10lb and 20lb. HDU. It would have cost us roughly 30 times that amount to do the tooling with metal. Not only that, as soon as we discovered the numerous options we had for block configuration and sheet size, we never went back to bonding up railroad-tie size pieces of wood or buying chunks of metal like we did in the past,” he said.

“If you make the decision to buy metal tooling, you’re constrained by a lot of factors — higher cost, size and weight and overall lead time for the tool build,” says Coastal Enterprises president Chuck Miller. “High-density urethane foam offers much more flexibility and speed, and the coefficient of thermal expansion can be easily compensated for.”

Customization options, allowing for easier accommodation of design changes, also played a large role in high density polyurethane winning the hearts and minds of the aerospace tooling industry.

Sharp went on to say,

“Another major reason we were so drawn to HDU for tooling was the greater level of design flexibility that was suddenly available. We used to order our blocks several inches thicker than we needed them, which made the inevitable design changes much less of a headache. Could we have done that with metal? Absolutely not, we would have had to start all over again.” says Sharp. “The bottom line is, once high density urethane became available, we weren’t about to spend millions of dollars on tooling for a prototype, especially one that could be of limited life! The quality, consistency, and block configuration options of Precision Board cut labor time and cost down so drastically that we didn’t want to use anything else!”

The Benefits of Soft Tooling

To summarize, the advantages of using soft tooling are as follows:

  1. Shorter Machining Time
  2. Less Wear on Your Machine
  3. Lighter Weight
  4. Easily Accommodates Design Changes
  5. Lower Overall Project Cost
  6. Shorter Overall Tool Production Time

Additionally, Coastal Enterprises offers services you can’t get elsewhere.  For instance, we can fabricate custom-bonded blocks and layup tool from Precision Board soft tooling, something that can’t be done with hard tooling.  Our team can assemble complex step tools of any size, any thickness, and any density.  Coastal’s bonded blocks have near imperceptible bond lines and are delivered in near-net shape, ready for machining immediately.

In tomorrow’s post we will address the many benefits of using Precision Board urethane tooling board from Coastal Enterprises and why many in the aerospace industry are relying more on soft tooling materials, like Precision Board.

National Composites Week Schedule

Monday- Coastal’s School Donation Program
Tuesday- What is soft tooling and how has it changed the composites industry?
Wednesday- The benefits of Precision Board over other tooling boards
Thursday- The creation and benefits of Precision Board step-tools
Friday- Coastal’s long history and roots in the space program

A group of composites industry leaders has announced the creation and launch of the inaugural National Composites Week, Aug. 26-30, 2019. The goal of National Composites Week is to encourage manufacturers from throughout the composites manufacturing supply chain — raw material suppliers, convertors, designers, toolmakers, fabricators, educators, students — to celebrate and bring attention to the myriad ways that composite materials and composites manufacturing contribute to the products and structures that shape the American manufacturing landscape today.  More information is available HERE

National Composites Week was organized and launched by braiding specialist A&P Technology, global advanced composites company Hexcel and media partner CompositesWorld magazine.

Coastal Enterprises manufactures Precision Board, a versatile, cost-effective and eco-friendly urethane material used extensively in the tooling industry.  It is a closed-cell, rigid, dimensionally-stable substrate that is ideal for use in a number of different tooling applications.

Request free samplesget a quote or sign up for weekly e-blasts packed with helpful information.