Sandretto UK & Ireland supplies Injection Moulding Machines, robots and ancillaries to a wide variety of applications areas. This includes the manufacture of childrens games and toys. In particular, the Games Workshop use 19 Sandretto Injection Moulding Machines in the production of their highly detailed minature figures. Sandretto machines provide the flexibility and consistency to assist in the manufacture of these highly intricate 5cm high characters.
Click on our case studies below to read more about how our clients make use of Sandretto products in this area:
Games Workshop
‘WARHAMMER’ MINIATURES SET FEROCIOUS QUALITY STANDARDS ACHIEVED BY SANDRETTO MOULDING MACHINES. DAL MASCHIO DOSERS FORM BASIS OF UP-GRADED MASTERBATCH AND MATERIALS HANDLING SYSTEM
Significant in the success of the range of Games Workshop’s fantasy war games is the plastics moulding operation housed in a largely self-contained factory on the outskirts of Wisbech. Here, 19 Sandretto injection moulding machines operate fully automatically, round the clock to produce the highly detailed miniatures which enthusiasts around the world assemble and paint before ‘going into battle’.
Latest move to control manufacturing costs at the Wisbech factory has been the installation of a comprehensive masterbatch system employing Dal Maschio dosers. Combined with take-off conveyors, sprue separators and facilities to transfer regrind sprues into the hopper loaders through proportional valves, this completes the current project of fully automating the moulding process.
Polymer is currently held in day bins and fed to the machines; finished moulding (secured by their feeds in sets of parts) are sent to Games Workshop’s main premises at Lenton in Nottingham for packaging and distribution.
NEW SYSTEM RAISES EFFICIENCY
Central to the changeover, from what had been a manual process of colour-mixing up to 4 tonnes of polymer per day, are the Dal Maschio doser units fitted to all 19 moulding machines. These range in size from 60 to 350 tonnes lock. Early saving were made through reduction of labour, the two operators used for colour mixing. Subsequently, Games Workshop has been able to replace a ‘cell’ production system by a simple, overall shift arrangement; now, a shift of four operators and two setters under a cell leader runs the whole moulding shop. The new system is cost-effective and more productive.
The nature of the business, feeding a retail market and with increasing ranges of miniatures being introduced by the company’s in-house design team, demands an extremely high level of flexibility. Four mould tool changes in a shift is common and this, in turn, demands easy and rapid setting up, of ancillary equipment as well as moulds. Strict procedures require adherence to a so-called ‘Pre-Flight Check’ including, for the Dal Maschio dosers, keying-in details of dosage, rpm, etc. on a small key fob. Although it is not considered necessary at Games Workshop, the key fob can be removed from the doser for security.
MAINTAINED TO RIGOROUS SCHEDULES
One of the aspects of the moulding operation has to be the exceptionally clean environment. The entire plant has been maintained to rigorous schedules, ensuring its ability to continue producing precise mouldings from tools designed and made in-house at Wisbech.
Upgrading of the moulding process has been achieved through the introduction of improved ancillary equipment, such as the new polymer handling system and conveyors
WARHAMMER MINIATURES ENFORCE HIGH STANDARDS
To understand the demands for both flexibility and consistent high quality placed on the Wisbech moulding shop, one needs to appreciate the extent of the range of futuristic Warhammer miniatures. Individual characters, standing around 5 cm high and extending from armies of skeletons and ferocious looking orcs to tanks, aircraft and space bikes, can be modified and armed, their weaponry can be enhanced and all war games are fought under strict rules.
The company produces the monthly White Dwarf magazine and hosts regular and popular workshops at retail outlets around the country. Enthusiasm, from all ages, has now spread throughout Europe and Scandinavia as well as to the USA, Australia and Japan, and the company hosts an annual Games Day for over 8000 at Birmingham’s Indoor Arena.
Latest achievement on the part of Games Workshop is the manufacture of a full set of ‘Lord Of The Rings’ miniatures, in close alliance with the film producers.
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