Advantages

Obviously preforms cost money. You will either need to procure them or produce them yourself. In our experience clients have a wide variety of reasons to choose to use preforms.

This ranges from a client who has a product so intricate that it cannot be made using hand-lay up to a client that has a relatively simple product but who wants to cuts costs.

Whether you procure preforms from an outside supplier or produce them yourselves you will need to carefully consider the benefits to you. Not all of these are tangible.

The costs of a preform can be calculated. Investments, write offs, material costs, labour costs etc. And how about the benefits?

Consider:

  • Preforms are made out of glass roving, which is more affordable than other fiberglass reinforcements;
  • Shortened cycle time, giving higher production volume. Your production mould is not tied up in the manual draping of fiberglass mats, only in injection of resin;
  • Less repairs because of higher quality of your reinforcements
  • Larger freedom of the geometry of your product: give your designer a free reign!
  • When you need to manually drape fiberglass mats, you are always limited in what you can design because a worker can only reach so much. A fibreglass preform can simply be dropped in the mould;
  • Reduction of labour costs;
  • Constant (high) quality products;
    • No material overlaps, guaranteed equal resin flow in RTM systems
    • No human mistakes
    • No specially trained staff required
    • Less waste material

When your production volume stays the same and you start using preforms, the reduction of cycle time will automatically lead to a reduction of headcount, strengthening your bottom line.

Calculate Savings

Is preform technology for you? What do you need to do is a very simple calculation!

  1. Calculate the savings in material cost. Do not forget to take into account the amount of waste material that you generate. Which you will not when using preforms. Use €2 per kilo glass fibre roving.
  2. Calculate the amount of savings in labour. Do not forget the preparation of the glass – cutting to size. Use the actual labour costs – what you are paying a worker plus benefits. For this you need the number of products produced per year.
  3. Calculate the amount of rework saved. Remember a preform always fits. No runners!

Then: add up your savings!

As an example:

Suppose you buy 10.000 kg glassfibre mat per annum at 5 euro per kilo. Your average product contains 3 kg of glass. Of this volume 10% is waste. You save both 10 minutes in preparation and application of the glassmat. Finally on average you spend 5 minutes per product on rework. Roving will cost 2 euro per kilo.

Actual labour costs are €30 per kilo.

You save €50.000 per annum.