The CAD, in whatever state it's in
STEP files are ideal. A sketch with key dimensions is fine for a first conversation.
Before steel · prove the part
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 allowed.
Why bother
Silicone behaves differently from the printed model on your desk.
A 3D print tells you whether a part fits. It can't tell you whether a seal compresses the way you expect, whether a keypad dome clicks, or whether a strap feels cheap against a wrist. Those answers only come from the actual elastomer at the actual hardness.
Prototype tooling sits between the print and the production tool. Depending on the part, that might be a machined aluminium tool, a simple compression tool with a single cavity, or a cast silicone tool made from a master pattern. Each is quick to make and inexpensive to throw away.
The point isn't to make lots of parts. The point is to make enough parts to test properly — drop tests, compression set checks, user panels, assembly trials — and to change the design between rounds without writing off a steel tool each time.
When the design settles, we carry what we learned straight into production tooling. Same engineer, same notes, no hand-over gap.
Three kinds of prototype tool
Matched to what you need to learn.
Cast silicone tools
Poured around a printed or machined master. The fastest way to get a handful of parts in a castable silicone. Good for look-and-feel and early fit checks.
Aluminium compression tools
Machined, single or low cavity, run in our presses with production-family materials. The closest match to how the final part will behave.
Bridge tools
A simplified version of the production tool that can supply your first customer batches while the steel tool is being made. Useful when launch dates won't wait.
How a prototype round runs
Short loops, written down.
Each round has a question it's trying to answer. If we can't name the question, we're not ready to cut the tool.
Agree the question
Fit, feel, sealing, durability, appearance — pick the one or two things this round has to prove. That decides the tool type and the material.
Make the tool
Cast, machined or bridged, depending on the question. Draft, parting line and gating are designed as they would be in production, so the lessons transfer.
Mould and measure
Parts are moulded, trimmed and checked. We record hardness, cure conditions and any moulding issues alongside the parts.
Review together
You test the parts in your product. We compare notes and decide what changes. Changes are cheap at this stage, so we encourage them.
Freeze and hand on
Once the design stops moving, the prototype record becomes the brief for the production tool.
To quote it
What helps us size a prototype tool.
The question you're trying to answer
A fit check needs a different tool from a compression-set test. Tell us what the parts are for.
How many parts per round
Five for a design review and a few hundred for a user trial are different jobs.
Where you think production lands
If we know the likely production route, we design the prototype so it teaches you about that route — more on that here.
Related routes
Where this connects.
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…
Read moreTooling 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…
Read moreBatch manufacturing
For volumes measured in the hundreds or low thousands per batch, released on your schedule rather than ours. Bridge tooling, dedicated compression,…
Read moreDesigned 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 idea in a picture.
Which route suits your quantity
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