Author: Mark Elliott

Working closely alongside our local foundry manufacturer, we are now able to offer cast aluminium plaques. This is particularly exciting news for us, as it means we can manufacture items which are normally too large using our traditional stamping and lost wax techniques.

Sand casting is a method where compacted grains of sand are used as the mold material. It is one of the oldest and most widely used metal casting skills. Listed below are some of the key steps in the production method for the Scooby Clinic cast aluminium plaques we recently manufactured.

A pattern is made based on the desired design. A bottom mold is filled with compacted sand and the pattern is pressed into the sand. The top mold is then aligned and placed on to the bottom mold. More sand is added to the top mold and compacted until almost solid. The top mold is then carefully lifted and the pattern removed, leaving a vacuum in the the sand. The top mold is then re-aligned again to the bottom, and molten metal (in this case aluminium) is poured into the vacuum and allowed to cool. Once cooled, the top and bottom molds are separated to leave the aluminium casting.

Once the aluminium castings have been made, they are fettled to remove any blemishes/grains of sand sometimes caused by the molds and start to look more like a finished item. For these particular plaques, black enamel was then filled into the recessed areas of the castings and left to cure/dry overnight.

Leaving the castings overnight, gave the enamel enough time to dry. We then polished the surface of each casting which also removed any enamel that had accidentally spilled over onto the raised areas. This left the plaques with a smooth and shiny surface, giving them a nice contrast to the black enamelled areas. Finally we sprayed each plaque with clear lacquer to protect the plaques and give them a high gloss finish.

Urban Automotive specialise in bodykits, tuning, interior and exterior styling packages for a host of vehicles. With roots tracing back to 2013 emerging under the name Urban Truck, the Urban Automotive brand has expanded from their original offerings of Land Rover Defenders to include bespoke, luxury Range Rovers and more.

We first met Simon and the Urban team at the 2015 Autosport International show after seeing their impressive stand and array of high quality demonstration vehicles they had on display. Whist the vehicles were built to a very high standard, it did come as a surprise that non of them were branded with their company logo to show prospective clients who had undertaken the work.

After discussing a few ideas at the show, Simon got in touch and sent across some designs and concepts he wanted to develop. After some discussion, it was decided we were going to produce grill badges to replace the standard Land/Range Rover badge at the front and rear of the vehicles and also a ‘Tailored by Urban’ badge which would be adhered to the front wings.

The Tailored by Urban badges are solid metal with a chrome plated surface, leaving a shiny but durable finish. The text is chrome metal surrounded by the black background and small red accents with are all filled with hard enamel and polished, ensuring a nice even finish to the surface. They come complete with 3M self-adhesive foam strips on the rear, ensuring they stick to the contours of every vehicle.

The grill badges on the other hand were chrome plated, but coloured with soft enamel. This is because the curvature of the plaques needed to fit the standard plinths was so severe, hard enamel was not technically possibly.

Since manufacturing the initial items, we have build a great business relationship with Simon and the Urban Automotive team. Most recently we have produced the Urban crest badges which can be seen at the top of the page. These are plated in an antique style coating, giving a brushed look to the surface and coloured with hard enamel ensuring durability. These plaques have also been developed to fit on their custom interior carpet mats by soldering fittings to the rear of the plaques.

Remembrance Day 2016 will have a new tribute to the brave men who lost their lives fighting for their country.

‘The Tunstead Oak Tree’ sculpture has been made to honour the 84 employees at Tarmacs lime quarry works in Tunstead Buxton who served and fell during World War 1 and 2. The sculpture has been produced by Paul Widdows at Wharncliffe Forge  has taken over months to complete and is made up of 485 separate components.

Blacksmith sculptor Paul has spent hours forging the tree trunk, branches and leaves. The metal oak tree stands over 6 foot tall and has 84 leaves on the tree for each of the men who worked at the Tunstead quarry and lost their lives in World War 1 and 2. The leaves will have a round enamel disc bearing the name of the every fallen employee, which have been produced by Sheffield company House of Logos. The discs have been stamped out from metal, polished, then coloured with an Autumn brown enamel. They are polished one final time, before being printed with the name of a fallen employee.

The Tunstead Oak Tree sculpture will be dedicated on the 11th of November 2016 where employees, dignitaries, representatives from the British Legion and people from the Buxton community will be in attendance.

The Tunstead Oak Sculpture will take pride of place in Tarmacs offices situated in the front reception lounge for all to see. A fitting Remembrance Day tribute to the brave men from Buxton who lost their lives on the battlefields of World War 1 and World War 2.

It is not the first time the Tarmac Tunstead site has produced a memorial, as earlier in the year they unveiled a metal poppy sculpture in memory of the 15 men who worked at the Buxton Lime Firm and laid down their lives during the Battle of the Somme. Tarmac apprentices Liam Garner, Jack Nuttall and George Woodward were instrumental in the production of the Remembrance Day sculpture which takes centre stage in the main Tarmac HQ building.

Established in 2002, Revo is a world leader in Audi, VW, Skoda, SEAT and Ford group vehicle performance ECU software and hardware products. The company’s reach is truly global, with distribution in over 40 countries through an authorised network of over 400 authorised dealers and performance centres.

Revo approached us after being impressed by the quality of items we manufactured for Matt Neal at Team Dynamics. They wanted us to manufacture custom metal plaques which would be adhered to customers cars they had tuned. Their idea was to offer badge sets consisting of rear badges, wing badges and additional stage badges so their customers could proudly display the level of tune their car is running. They also wanted a keyring producing in the same style and finish to compliment the badge sets.

The Revo badges are solid metal with a chrome plated surface, leaving a shiny but durable finish. This is essential when you consider the badges are exposed to a wide variety of adverse weather conditions. The black lettering and red accents are filled with hard enamel and polished, ensuring a nice even finish to the surface. They come complete with 3M self-adhesive foam strips on the rear, ensuring they stick to the contours of every car.

The exterior vehicle badges and keyrings marked the start of an exciting working relationship with Revo. Since then we have produced stainless steel plaques which are adhered to their induction kits and are currently producing Golf GTI style side badges with a twist!

Revo are a great company to work with, as they continue to develop new products and come to us with exciting ideas/briefs. They are very precise and have a great eye for detail, pushing us to deliver items of real quality.

With the help of social media, it’s incredible to see badges we have manufactured being proudly displayed on cars all over the world.