Adreco Plastics

Adreco plastics is a UK plastic injection moulding company founded in 1977 in Milton Keynes, the UK’s most prosperous city, and has been manufacturing for over 50 years. Milton Keynes remains our Head Office, and we also have facilities in Shenzhen, China.

We are accredited to ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001, a member of The British Plastics Federation (BPF) and a member of SEDEX (The Supplier Ethical Data Exchange). Uniquely, we have Moulding, Toolmaking and Assembly operations, including Cleanroom Assembly, all based at Milton Keynes.

OVERSEAS MANUFACTURE –
BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
Some tool projects, such as large suites of tools, require parallel input from our facilities in both the UK and Shenzhen, China, to ensure you receive the best possible service on time and at the very best value.

Both our factories work to the same top-quality approach to ensure every stage of the manufacturing process is coordinated, bringing everything together for completion and final assessment at our UK facilities.

We have enjoyed great success with this approach, winning awards in 2023, 2022, 2021, 2017, 2016 and 2015. This allows us to maintain quality, share best practice and keep lead times competitive.

We Operate Within These
CORE VALUES
Provide outstanding customer service.
Deliver excellent quality and reliability on time.
Offer good value for money.

Industry
SECTORS
For over 50 years, Adreco has provided tooling and moulding services to a vast range of industries, including:

Automotive
Construction
Medical & Hygiene
Defence
Agriculture
Point of Sale
Retail
Beverage
Packaging
Lighting

OUR SERVICES

Plastics Designs & Prototypes
From preliminary sketch to WORKING PROTOTYPE
While Prototype Tooling Plastics, Our preferred method for designing injection moulding tools is to work from full CAD files for each required component. Alternatively, we can also work from sketches or descriptions to create your bespoke design. We also offer a comprehensive DFM (design for manufacturing) assessment to ensure the optimum balance between effective manufacturing and the best possible 3D design.


Injection Mould Toolmakers
In-house TOOL MAKING
We promote professionalism above all in our tool-making facilities, insisting on accuracy and precision in all-out finished tools and components. Having our state-of-the-art facilities on-site allows us to offer routine repairs and maintenance and new tools.

Our injection moulding machines allow impressive flexibility in functionality and design, while our exacting quality control standards ensure that our tools are fit for purpose and durable. Our suite of machines includes CNC milling machines, CNC lathes, CNC wire eroders, and CNC / EDM spark eroders.


Plastic Injection Moulding Companies
PLASTIC INJECTION MOULDING
There are many advantages to using plastic injection moulding for manufacturing parts and products., The mould can be customised to create very fine detail, which enables highly accurate specifications to be met. Parts can be made in small or large batch sizes and to highly precise colour and texture requirements. Plastic injection moulded products tend to be robust, attractive and robust, reducing the need to manufacture replacements for longer. Finally, the wider variety of plastic polymers that can be used allows for wide versatility and choice when creating orders.

Types of Plastic Injection Moulding

Injection Moulding
There are many different moulding types in plastic injection moulding. Injection moulding is a very popular method for producing structurally sound plastic parts and components en masse, using melted polymers and plastics. These are forced into a specially shaped mould cavity, left to solidify and then extracted from the mould once cool. Very effective for prototypes and mass-produced solid items such as toys, phone components, automotive parts and utensils.

Moulding Type: Blow Moulding
Blow moulding follows a similar process to injection moulding, but the melted plastic is poured vertically out of a barrel and down into the mould, via a special tube. From there, the action of the mould closing on it blows the plastic outwards to that it coats the inside of the mould to form the required shape. As it cools, the inside section hollows out, making it a great technique for bottles, food containers and tubes.

Moulding Type: Structural Foam Moulding
This is an oft-chosen method for items that need thicker walls for greater durability and tensile strength. A small quantity of nitrogen or chemical blow agent is added into the melted plastic to thicken its consistency. The mixture foams as it enters the mould, forming a plastic ‘skin’ that solidifies to make the wall of the item being constructed. This technique works with any type of thermoplastic that is capable of being injection moulded.

Moulding Type: Thermoforming
Thermoforming takes as different approach to injection moulding and other methods that use melted plastic. Sheets of pre-extruded, rigid plastics are heated and sucked down into hollowed-out cavities. As the sheets cool, they take on the shape of the mould to form the finished piece. This is normally a more reasonably priced way of making plastic parts that have a smaller run than anything that is being mass-produced.

Moulding Type: Rotational Moulding
This method uses powdered plastic that is fixed around spokes that extend out from a central hub inside a specially prepared mould. As the mould rotates, the hub moves into a furnace room, where the plastic powder melts and sticks to the inside of the mould. The hub then moves to a cooling area, where the hot plastic hardens into a hollow component that fits the exact shape of the mould. This is a slightly costlier process, but a good option for prototypes and pieces that need to be highly accurate, but not produced in high numbers.

Assembly & Packaging
CLEAN ROOM ASSEMBLY
We have a temperature and humidity control assembly room suitable for medical applications.

3D Printing Services
3D Printing ON DEMAND
One fascinating aspect of this manufacturing technique is how many things to 3D print are out there and how easily a design can be produced and put into production on demand.

From toys and models to automotive parts and medical devices, the list of 3D printed products can be endless. There is a fast-growing market for 3D printed tools that can be produced in smaller quantities within short lead times to keep costs down while using highly bespoke specifications to enable tools and other 3D printed objects to meet a precise purpose on-demand.

Custom 3D PRINTING PROJECTS
Adreco plastics can offer customer 3D printing support, which covers the whole process, as well as helping to correct any 3D printing problems you may have encountered elsewhere.

Our custom 3D printing service lets you order the specific product, tool, or component you need, delivered to the perfect specification, colour, and finish. This is ideal for demanding applications and highly customised designs, where branding, colours and shape are paramount.

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