Composites and additive manufacturing specialists Silverstone Composites and Mackart Additive have both enjoyed huge growth in the past 24-36 months thanks to collaborating with one another after meeting through the STC.
MD Marcus Trofimov has reported a 30% growth in Silverstone Composites because of the collaboration.
Meanwhile Mackart Additive has seen a growth in the same period nearing an extraordinary 80%.
In essence, Mackart Additive is using its 3D printing capabilities to manufacturer tooling required by Silverstone Composites for production of niche componentry in Formula 1.
Merging their technologies has led to a much more efficient operation and means new, ground-breaking products are being developed each year for customers.
We met Steve through the STC; he understood what we were trying to achieve, so we did some trials together and the results were phenomenal.
Marcus Trofimov, Silverstone Composites“It’s shrunk our development time from six to two months and enabled us to produce parts for customers faster and to a better quality.
“We’re more cost effective, energy efficient, more durable, have a lower cost process and the advancement in technologies and processes – we are doing things nobody else has even thought of – it’s the icing on the cake for clients.”
Steve added: “Mackart’s additive manufacturing capability started as an addition to the engineering consultancy services and evolved as a development activity to learn and refine the capability. The STC enabled me to network the business, identify a matched niche and client base and ultimately provided the opportunity to meet Marcus.
“We quickly got those nice collaborative communication streams going whereby we understand one another’s technology – additive manufacturing and composites complement each other – and are able to continually try new things.
“Formula 1 is a world where things change rapidly.
“We’ve been able to take 60% out of the lead time for hard tooling required for niche, low-volume products that Marcus makes – two weeks has become 24-48 hours depending on complexity.
“Conversely, he’s using those tools to make parts for us to sell on to our customers.
“We’ve seen an 80% growth in the business in the last 24 months. We’ve taken on new people and have moved into new, larger premises with the vision to expand into the aerospace market as we take the business through the ISO9001 and AS9100 accreditations”.
Marcus continued: “We and Mackart Additive are equally-minded but we would never have found each other without the STC and the events and the promotion they do in connecting people.”
Leverage the power of the network by joining a community that’s focused on knowledge-sharing, collaboration and growth.
