Lay-up moulds are made up of a hard metal nickel skin mounted on a steel frame. This allows a higher volume of production compared to composite moulds. They allow for the manufacture of products with perfect surface detail throughout the life time of the tool. Tool maximum operating temperature of 250 ° C.
For the manufacturing of a mould it is necessary to machine a polyurethane master model, which is used as either the master model or bath model. The nickel deposition takes place at a rate of 0,001 mm/hour. The model will be frequently taken out of the Nickel tank in order to measure the deposit and if necessary adjust the shields and anodes to obtain an even nickel thickness.
The flexibility of a 4 to 6 mm nickel shell allows the shape to be dimensionally adjusted which, in some cases, is necessary to compensate for part springback.