The panel is bigger than a standard bed
Long-span cladding, tall façade panels, big architectural units. The formliner has to be built oversized, spliced correctly.
Large format · Splice-planned
Large moulds you can actually lift, splice and store.
Oversized formliners and large-format panel moulds — spliced at the panel joint, backed with rigid frames, and designed with the lifting points and the store rack in mind from the pattern stage.
When it fits
Where large-format tooling is the right route.
The mould has to be lifted between pours
Anything you can't slide, drag or manhandle needs lifting points designed into the backing frame.
The tool will live on more than one bed
If it moves between beds it needs to be rigid enough to move without distortion.
Store space is a constraint
Large moulds have to stack, hang, or fold. That's decided at design stage, not at delivery.
The choice
How large-format is different.
Large-format work is where the mould stops being just silicone and becomes a system: the silicone face, the rigid backing, the splice arrangement, the lifting points and the store method. Any one of those getting the wrong answer means the tool won't live its projected life.
Splices happen where the panel joints already fall. That's not always possible if the panel design has continuous relief across the joint, in which case we'll ghost the splice into a designed detail — a shadow gap, a chamfer, a pattern feature — that reads as intended rather than as accidental.
For handling, we build lifting eyes into the backing frame at points that don't stress the silicone. The tool comes with a photograph of the correct lifting sequence so a new yard hand knows how to move it without folding it.
What we need
To quote this properly.
Panel drawing and bed size
Overall panel dimensions, joint layout, and where the tool will sit.
Your handling equipment
Cranes, vacuum lifters, forklifts. Determines lifting eye positions.
Store method
Vertical rack, horizontal stack, hanging. Affects backing frame design.
Programme
One panel a fortnight or ten a week — determines how much the mould travels and how rigid the backing needs to be.
The honest bit
Large moulds fail from handling more than from pours.
The commonest cause of premature failure on large-format tools is handling damage, not wear. A crease from a badly-placed sling, a knock on the corner from a forklift tine, a fold from being stored on the wrong side — these are what shorten life on oversized tooling.
That's why we spend proper time at the design stage on how the tool moves and stores, and why we come to first-delivery with a walk-through of the handling sequence. It costs us an afternoon and it can add years to the tool's life.
The rigid backing frame is a real piece of the cost. It's tempting to skimp on it to keep the quote down, and it always regrets. If you're deciding between a slightly cheaper flimsier backing and a properly-engineered one, the properly-engineered one is the right answer every time.
Drill down
2 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 idea in a picture.
Planning liners across a wall
Swipe to see the whole diagram
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