Compression moulding
Solid silicone or rubber pre-formed, loaded into a heated steel tool, and pressed under cure. Sensible tooling cost, thousands of parts per tool, and the workhorse route for volume…
Open the processHow parts get made · route by route
Processes.
Different parts need different routes. Not one process is best for everything, and pretending otherwise leads to expensive tooling for the wrong job. Here's what we run and where each one is the right answer.
The map
The right process isn't the fanciest process.
Every enquiry we get includes at least one assumption about how the part will be made. Sometimes the assumption is right. Often it isn't, and correcting it early saves the customer either tooling investment they don't need to make or a supply model they'll regret in six months.
This page is a plain map of what we run, when each one is the correct answer, and when the shiny alternative would be the wrong answer for reasons the marketing brochures don't mention.
For a first conversation about which process fits your part, contact us with a drawing or sample and an annual volume. That's enough to start the route decision.
Core processes
Nine routes, and where each one fits.
Silicone injection moulding
High-consistency silicone injected under heat into steel tooling. For a component you'll buy every quarter for years, this is the lowest cost per part we can offer — and the wrong …
Open the process
LSR injection moulding
Two-part liquid silicone metered, mixed, injected cold and cured hot. The cleanest route we have for medical, wearable and electronics parts at genuine volume, with very little to …
Open the process
Overmoulding
Silicone or rubber moulded directly onto a pre-made substrate — a plastic housing, a metal insert, a printed circuit assembly — so the finished part comes off the press already bon…
Open the process
Two-shot moulding
Two materials moulded in a single cycle on a press configured for both — usually a rigid plastic first, then silicone bonded onto it, without ever leaving the tool. The finished pa…
Open the process
Insert moulding
A pre-made insert — a threaded stud, a metal contact, a printed circuit, a stiffening plate — placed into the tool cavity, then silicone or rubber moulded around it. The insert bec…
Open the process
Post-processing and finishing
Deflash, trim, print, bond, assemble, inspect and pack. Everything that has to happen between the press opening and the part being ready for your assembly line, done in one place, …
Open the process
Transfer moulding
Material is loaded into a pot above the tool and pushed through sprues into closed cavities. It fills more evenly than compression and costs less to tool than injection. For the ri…
Open the process
Silicone extrusion
Some parts aren't moulded at all. Door seals, cord, tube and edge trims are pushed through a die and cured continuously. We supply extruded sections, cut them, join them and pair t…
Open the processProgramme services
How the moulding fits into a supply arrangement.
Prototype tooling
A part that looks right in CAD can still feel wrong in the hand. Prototype tooling gives you real parts in the real material family, cheaply enough that changing your mind is allow…
Open the service
Batch manufacturing
For volumes measured in the hundreds or low thousands per batch, released on your schedule rather than ours. Bridge tooling, dedicated compression, or single-cavity LSR — whichever…
Open the service
Tooling and part continuity
For parts that will be in production for years — components inside a device family, sealing parts on long-lived equipment, consumer parts on a rolling programme. The tool, the mate…
Open the service
Hardware encapsulation
Wrapping a sensor, board or cable joint in silicone protects it from water, dust, vibration and hands. Done badly, it cracks solder joints or cooks components. Done carefully, it's…
Open the service
Branded part manufacture
Silicone products moulded, finished, packaged and labelled to your brand — ready to ship into your retail, e-commerce or wholesale channel. Your customer sees your name. We're a wo…
Open the service
Valves and diaphragms
A valve is judged on one thing: does it open and close the way it's supposed to, every time. That comes down to wall section, material hardness and consistency between batches. It'…
Open the serviceDesigned and developed in the UK. UK moulding capability, with some higher-volume production placed with trusted partners where that's the right commercial answer.
At a glance
The ideas in pictures.
Which route suits your quantity
Swipe to see the whole diagram
From drawing to delivered parts
- 01Drawing or sampleYour part and where it is used
- 02Material and routeCompound and process agreed
- 03PrototypeReal parts to test
- 04Sign-offYou approve the samples
- 05Production toolBuilt for your volumes
- 06Batches and checksInspected and delivered
Swipe to see the whole diagram
Get in touch
Tell us the part, the volume, and the timeline.
Rough annual volume, target unit price, and any deadlines. That's enough to work out whether compression, LSR injection or something else is the right tool.
Real people, a real workshop
You deal with the people who make it.
No call centre and no middlemen. When you contact TCI Products, you speak to the team who design, build and check your mould.
- A real Warwickshire workshopUnit 15, Waterloo Park, Bidford-on-Avon, Alcester B50 4JG.
- Real people on the phoneCall the team on 01789 224228, Monday to Friday.
- The same team on every jobDesign, production and aftercare come from the people you see here.
- Part of TCI GroupFive specialist brands, one engineering team. Visit TCI Group.
Thomas LaneManaging Director
George PrestonDesign & Project Manager
Kelly BallingerHead of Partnerships
Jim AndertonProduction Manager
TheodoreEmployee Welfare