Milton Keynes-based Prodrive Composites (
www.prodrive.com), a designer and manufacturer of advanced lightweight structural and non-structural composites with applications in a wide range of sectors — including automotive, motor-sport, aerospace, marine and defence — is increasing its production capacity through a series of facility and equipment upgrades in order to meet the growing demand for high-quality parts.
A Zund automated pre-preg cutting machine has been installed to support the throughput of raw material and the cutting of material kits for laminating, and this has doubled the cutting department’s capacity.
The laminating production space has also been expanded by 50% to house a dedicated training room, where apprentices and trainees can hone their skills, and a new autoclave is being procured that will allow another 50 parts to be cured every day.
Prodrive has also moved from hand-trimming to five-axis CNC machine trimming for the manufacture of some large components, while the introduction of two in-house 3-D printers has reduced the company’s reliance on third-party providers for prototype development.