Scott Bader, a global manufacturer of adhesives, resins and gelcoats with headquarters in the UK, and Swift Group, the UK’s largest manufacturer of touring caravans, motorhomes and holiday homes, first met at the 2014 Advanced Engineering Show.

After initial discussions and successful trials, Swift began producing some of their motorhome and caravan GRP panels using Scott Bader’s Crystic® Gelcoat LS 96PA. The use of Scott Bader’s LS 96PA gelcoat allowed Swift to increase the weathering performance of its vehicle components and reduce its environmental impact through lower styrene emissions. This significant achievement led to Swift changing its entire range of GRP panels to be finished with Scott Bader’s Crystic Gelcoats. Furthermore, it helped Scott Bader develop their presence in the UK leisure vehicle market.

The success of Crystic Gelcoats led to further discussions on how Scott Bader’s adhesives range could benefit Swift. Scott Bader’s Crestabond® M1-02, capable of bonding various substrates together including ABS to GRP and GRP to GRP. The bond gave Swift the required material to structurally improve the adhesion as well as speeding up its manufacturing process. Since using Crestabond M1-02 to bond parts to the panels of motorhomes and caravans, Swift has been able to significantly increase its output of parts due to the short 1-2 minute fixture time of Crestabond M1-02.

The growing relationship between Scott Bader and Swift has more recently led to another successful application. Scott Bader’s Crestamould® rapid tooling system was trialled and Swift found that once again it could produce parts faster and with a better finish using the Crestamould tooling system. After using the same tooling system for 20 years, Swift is now using Scott Bader’s Crestamould rapid tooling system and producing parts at a faster rate than ever.

Andy Mason, Swift senior Production Manager, said:

“I regularly compliment the Scott Bader team on their excellent response time and technical support. They are always on hand when we need their assistance and they regularly go above and beyond by helping us with our styrene monitoring and keeping us up-to-date on the latest product innovations that could potentially further benefit Swift”.

At this year’s Advanced Engineering Show, Scott Bader and Swift are showcasing a Basecamp model; Swift’s sporty, fun and stylish compact crossover camping vehicle. The substrate fixtures and fittings are bonded together using Scott Bader’s Crestabond M1-02 structural adhesive (GRP to GRP, GRP to Stainless). Visit Scott Bader on stand O40 for more information on its full range of adhesives, resins, gelcoats and tooling products.