The relief is designed, not off-the-shelf
The architect has drawn a specific relief. A stock formliner won't match it. A bespoke silicone or polyurethane tool built from the architect's drawing will.
Architectural cladding · Bespoke tooling
Cladding tooling designed in with the architect.
Bespoke silicone and polyurethane moulds for façade cladding panels, cornices, spandrels, string courses and feature elements. We come in early with the architect and the panel manufacturer so the tool suits the drawing, not the other way round.
When it fits
When architectural cladding tooling is the right call.
Panels have to line up across a façade
The relief continues from panel to panel, so splice lines and panel joints have to be co-ordinated. We do that on the drawing before the tool is poured.
The material spec is scrutinised
Architects and specifiers often need to see a written material spec before they'll approve the tool. We supply one as standard.
First-off approval is formal
Client, architect, panel manufacturer and us all present at first-off. It's easier to bring us in early than to redesign the tool after the meeting.
The choice
How we work with architects and specifiers.
The best cladding tools are the ones where we've been in the conversation from concept stage. We can tell an architect early which reliefs will demould, which will need special release, and which will need reshaping to avoid a permanent visible splice line. That's a lot cheaper than finding out at first-off.
For a specifier writing a spec, we'll supply a technical sheet describing the silicone or polyurethane grade, its temperature range, its expected working life for the pour count and mix specified, and its release compatibility. Nothing dressed up.
For a panel manufacturer, we work off your bed sizes, your release regime, and your handling equipment. The tool is designed to fit the way your yard already works, rather than requiring you to change process for it.
What we need
To quote this properly.
Architect's drawings
Elevation drawing with the relief marked, panel drawings with sizes, joint layout across the façade.
Panel manufacturer's bed and process
Bed size, mix, release regime, stripping method.
The programme and the pour count
Determines material grade and whether we need parallel tools to hit programme.
Who's approving first-off
Architect, engineer, client, specifier. We can attend if that helps.
The honest bit
The earlier the conversation, the better the tool.
Cladding jobs where we're brought in after the design is frozen are always harder than jobs where we've been in the room since concept. Not because we can't build the tool — we can — but because the design will occasionally contain a feature that's expensive to mould and cheap to redraw, and by the time it's frozen the redraw is off the table.
We'll be honest at every stage about which parts of the design are cheap to mould and which are expensive. The architect keeps the design lead; we just make sure they're spending mould budget where it gives them the visual, not where the drawing accidentally happens to require it.
Splices will exist. They're the seams where sections of the tool meet, and on a large panel with a repeating relief they're inevitable. We can put them where they read least — often at the panel joint — but we can't make them invisible.
Drill down
3 variants of this service.
Each one has its own page with the detail we'd normally cover on the first call.
Related
Where this fits in the wider system.
At a glance
The ideas in pictures.
Planning liners across a wall
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From sample to finished cast
- 01Sample, drawing or scanWhat the finish must match
- 02Master patternCarved, machined or taken from the original
- 03Liner or mouldMade in the right elastomer
- 04Trial castChecked with your mix
- 05Production castsLiner reused across the run
- 06Kept on fileReady for repeats
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Get in touch
Send us a photograph of the panel or the elevation.
One photograph tells us what surface you're chasing, and one line about the mix tells us what silicone or polyurethane will survive it.
Real people, a real workshop
You deal with the people who make it.
No call centre and no middlemen. When you contact TCI Construction, you speak to the team who design, build and check your mould.
- A real Warwickshire workshopUnit 15, Waterloo Park, Bidford-on-Avon, Alcester B50 4JG.
- Real people on the phoneCall the team on 01789 224228, Monday to Friday.
- The same team on every jobDesign, production and aftercare come from the people you see here.
- Part of TCI GroupFive specialist brands, one engineering team. Visit TCI Group.
Thomas LaneManaging Director
George PrestonDesign & Project Manager
Kelly BallingerHead of Partnerships
Jim AndertonProduction Manager
TheodoreEmployee Welfare