Machining + Tooling
Hard Tooling
A to Z's 20 years of tooling experience allows us to provide superior quality tooling whether it's autoclaved, vacuum bagged or hard tooling. Our facility is equipped to build molds of any size up to 30' in length.
A to Z starts tooling production from a drawing or design of your part, taking material, geometry, temperature and tolerance requirements into account.
The tooling is designed in CAD and presented to the customer for approval before patterns are cut.
We utilize exotic metals, CNC routing, milling, lathing, welding, trimming and drilling to manufacture a variety of hard tools.
Composite Tooling
We are second to none when it comes to bladder or compression molding composite parts. Every component and stage of production is completed in-house, eliminating the need to outsource.
We will select the best materials and processes for your specific needs, taking into account variables including: weight allowance, durability, tolerance to heat and cold, surface requirements and cost.
Fabric materials may be pre-pregged or impregnated in-house, and ply count is customized per requirements.
Processes we utilize include
-Bladder Molding
-Compression Molding
-Resin Transfer Molding (RTM)
-Trapper Rubber Molding
-Vacuum Bagging
-Wet Layup
WHY WORK WITH A TO Z?
Industry Experience
From a garage in Southern California 30 years ago, to a 10,000 square foot facility with 20+ staff, A to Z has grown into one of the leading precision composite shops in the country. Whether we're building custom jet ski racing hulls entirely by hand, or producing thousands of parts for the military, we're proud of our innovation, efficiency and quality control: Bringing you parts that work- on time and on budget.
Materials
We have access to a wide range of graphite and fiberglass fabric styles, both dry and pre-pregged, that offer a wide range of advantages when used in place of metals, ceramics, or polymers. By using a variety of prepreg carbon fiber, fiberglass, kevlar, thermoplastics and a wide range of adhesives, we create products that are superior to steel in weight and tensile strength, have excellent impact resistance, dimensional stability under temperature fluctuations, and do well in harsh chemical environments.
We work closely with PTM&W for most of our thermoset resin systems, which range in cure temp from 68 to 450° F. A to Z has been utilizing ceramic based pre-preg systems for extremely high temperature applications (up to and beyond 2000°F) with great success.
A to Z is also capable of creating prototype parts and one-off molds using a wide variety of materials including high and low-temp tooling boards, foam, wood and plastic faced plaster (PFP) molds.
Our Facility
Our 10,000 square foot facility is optimized to deal with all stages of part production. We can take your idea from sketch to CAD model, prototype through to finite analysis. Our facility is AS9100 compliant and meets all quality requirements associated with the handling and storage of hardware, electrical components and composite materials.
Our lay up and static-free assembly clean rooms, paint booths and curing ovens are maintained to ensure your product is of the highest quality.
Quality
A to Z guarantees every component that comes out of our shop. From ensuring fiber alignment when laminating, to trimming, testing and final measuring, we ensure every step is completed in a precise and careful manner that ensures product accuracy. Our Quality Control Manager has been certified to perform internal audits by RABQSA