Tooling Board Market - Forecast(2024 - 2030)

Tooling Board Market Overview

Tooling board market size is forecast to reach US$12.6 billion by 2027 after growing at a CAGR of 4.8% during the forecast period 2022-2027. Tooling boards are made from filled polymer materials, the most common being epoxy and polyurethane. When bonded together they form larger blanks and blocks are used to create models of CNC-machined tooling. Tooling board is also known as modeling board and styling foam. On account of their extensive applications in design, modeling, tooling, and prototyping, there is a high demand for tooling boards. The precision board is a high-density polyurethane tooling board specifically designed to meet a vast spectrum of tooling and tool-making applications that are used in the aerospace, automotive, wind energy industries. Increasing demand for the use of prototypes in motorsports is one of the major driving factors of the tooling board market.

COVID-19 Impact

The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the core industries such as automotive, aerospace & defense, and packaging. To flatten the curve of the infections, governments worldwide announced lockdowns, travel bans, and social distancing policies. Factories and manufacturing units were shut and economies came to a standstill for the first half of 2020. The automotive industry was severely affected. For instance, in China, sales of new vehicles fell by 92% in February 2020. In European countries, the total vehicle sales dropped by nearly 8% when compared to that of the sales in 2019. In India, many automotive manufacturers such as TVS, Mahindra, etc. stopped their production due to lockdown. The automotive industry is regarded as one of the largest employers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, automakers and their suppliers employ more than one million people in the United States. With the infection rate skyrocketing and concerns over the health of employees, OEMs and factories were shut across the world. Supply chain shortages caused due to shortage of semiconductors and local restrictions also severely hit the automotive industry once economic activities resumed. For instance, Maruti Suzuki India posted a pandemic-fuelled 75% decline in domestic wholesales at 35,293 units in May 2021 compared to 1,42,454 units in April 2021. This in turn also affected the tooling board industry.   

Report Coverage

The report: “Tooling Board Market – Forecast (2022-2027)”, by IndustryARC, covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments of the tooling board industry.

By Product: Epoxy Tooling Board, Polyurethane Tooling Board, and Others

By Density: Low Density, Medium Density, and High Density

By Application: Styling, Modelling, Master Tooling, Light Metal Bending, Prototyping, Fixtures, and Others

By End-Use Industry:  Aerospace & Defense, Marine, Wind Energy, Automotive, Industrial, Packaging, and Others

By Geography: North America (USA, Canada, and Mexico), Europe (UK, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Russia, Belgium, and Rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, Indonesia, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Rest of APAC), South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and Rest of South America), Rest of the World (the Middle East, and Africa)

Key Takeaways

• Europe dominates the tooling board market, owing to the number of aerospace and defense companies in the region. According to ASD Europe, in 2020, the European Defence industry generated a revenue of €119 billion, and civil aviation generated €99.3 billion.
• Polyurethane tooling boards are used in lower-temperature applications. They are stable and easy to mold and produce an excellent surface finish. They are lightweight and versatile, suitable to be styled via CNC machining or by hand.
• Precision boards are ideal for soft tooling and quick prototyping because it can be quickly machined and is more economical than using alternatives. They produce less dust and are eco-friendly.
• The major opportunity for this market is high research spending and its increasing usage in 3D- printing prototypes. 

Figure: Europe’s Tooling Board Market Revenue, 2021-2027 (US$ Billion)

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Tooling Board Market Segment Analysis – By Type

The polyurethane segment held the largest share of more than 30% in the Tooling Board Market in 2021. Polyurethane tooling boards are more economical compared to their epoxy counterparts. They are suitable for lower-temperature use. With polyurethane, a stable, easy-to-cut material is obtained that can handle up to 65?C or slightly more. There are high-temperature products (precision board, high-temperature hybrid-polyurethane tooling board, and others) that can handle more than 120?C. The higher temperature polyurethane boards have a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than epoxy boards of similar density.  Polyurethane tooling boards are extensively used in the automotive industry as well as other industries where prototyping and modeling work is required. The precision board is a high-density polyurethane tooling board that is designed to meet a broad range of tooling and tool making applications so it is widely used in the aerospace, automotive, and wind energy industries. Polyurethane tooling boards provide numerous benefits such as ease of machining, stability, fine edge definition, and low levels of residual particles for easy cleanup. Based on the above-mentioned advantages, the polyurethane segment is set to dominate the tooling board market over the forecast period.

Tooling Board Market Segment Analysis – By End-Use Industry

The aerospace and defense segment held the largest share in the tooling board market at 33% in 2021. Tooling boards or modeling boards are the most preferred material for several industries such as the aerospace and automotive industries as they are used to make prototype models and designs. During the prototyping phase, design engineers and program managers have to keep the costs low and turnaround times fast while still producing accurate models. The demand for tooling board prototypes is high as they provide the opportunity for process development and verification early in the project thus, shortening the approval process resulting in timely delivery of the final product. The wide usage of tooling boards for making composite tools, parts, and molds for the aerospace industry has led to a huge dominance of this segment in the tooling board market. According to the 2021 Boeing Market Outlook (BMO), the BMO projects a $9 trillion market over the next decade for aerospace products and services. The demand for domestic travel is leading to the recovery in the commercial sector. The Commercial Market Outlook (CMO) projects 10-year global demand for 19,000 commercial airplanes valued at $3.2 trillion. Boeing's 20-year commercial forecast through 2040 projects demand more than 43,500 new airplanes valued at $7.2 trillion, an increase of about 500 planes over the forecast of 2020. Thus, with the increased demand for new airplanes, the demand for tooling boards for prototypes is also expected to rise and thereby resulting in the aerospace and defense industry dominating the tooling board market over the forecast period.

Tooling Board Market Segment Analysis – By Geography

The European region held the largest share in the tooling board market in 2021 up to 35%, owing to the presence of large aeronautical enterprises in France, Germany Italy, and Spain. According to the European Commission, the European industry is a world leader in the production of civil aircraft, including helicopters, aircraft engines, parts, and components. The civil branch of the industry constitutes the backbone of the European aerospace and defense ecosystem. It represents 50% of its annual turnover, generating high-skilled jobs and innovation. According to AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD Europe), despite a challenging environment in 2020, the European aerospace and defense industry generated a total turnover of €229.7 billion and managed to maintain its role as a global market leader in 2020. There are a large number of wind farms in the region. The European Union (EU) is a global leader in using wind power. According to the European Commission, the EU currently has the largest floating wind energy capacity in the world, about 70% of the total. By 2030 the total installed wind energy capacity could reach 350GW, supplying up to 24% of electricity demand. Manufacturers offer epoxy tooling boards for wind turbines to streamline the fabrication of models and tools. With the growing number of large wind turbines, epoxy resins are quickly replacing polyester and are emerging as the matrices of wind blade composites.  Polyurethane tooling boards are used to develop prototypes for Formula One (F1) cars, aerospace applications, and lightweight vehicles. The European Grand Prix is an annual series of tournaments within the European Federation. Europe has some of the world’s best F1 tracks. Even though the 2020 F1 season had four fewer races than 2019, Formula 1 maintained a strong audience position, according to Formula One statistics. There were strong results in several key markets with +28% YoY in the Netherlands, +10% YoY in the UK, + 71% YoY in Russia, and +5% YoY in Germany. With rapid innovation in motorsports, there is a need for prototyping which drives the market for the tooling board industry. Therefore, Europe is set to be the region holding the largest share in the tooling board market during the forecast period. 

Tooling Board Market Drivers

• Increasing Demand for Prototypes of Vehicles

A prototype is a vehicle made to show off new developments. Prototypes are not designed for large-scale production. Instead, they are meant to gauge the practicality and popularity of implementing new designs and technologies. Automotive prototypes are integral parts of the entire automotive engineering process that allow engineers to decipher how to make new automotive products that appeal to customers and to ensure that a vehicle will be safe for end-users. The advent of e-mobility has enabled many companies to make their way into the automotive industry. Electric Vehicle (EV) companies have to showcase their designs and prototypes before a final decision is made. There is a big push from governments for the adoption of EVs as they are a greener alternative. For instance, the US President Biden’s executive order required the government’s fleet of nearly 645,000 federal vehicles to switch to electric. According to the?Edison Electric Institute, EV sales are expected to surpass 3.5 million per year by 2030, and more than $2.6 billion is being invested in ensuring the infrastructure exists to enable mass adoption for EVs by consumers. Moreover, the institute predicts an almost tripling in the number of fully electric models available by 2023. Therefore, there is an increased demand for prototypes from the EV industry which drives the market for the tooling board industry. 

• Increasing Applications of Precision Board

The precision board is a rigid, closed-cell, high-density polyurethane material. Precision tooling board is specifically engineered to meet the demands of a broad range of tooling and tool-making applications. Both Precision Board Low Temperature (PBLT) tooling board (<200?F) and Precision Board High Temperature (PBHT) tooling board (<300?F), possess excellent machining characteristics and dimensional stability for tool making. Precision tooling board is ideal for soft tooling and rapid prototyping because it can be more rapidly machined and it is more economical than alloy or epoxy-based alternatives. Geometric growth in the use of composites in aerospace, automotive, wind, energy, and other industries has opened up new markets for this versatile tool-making substrate. The precision board is designed for prototype machining, water jet cutting, pattern making, thermoforming, prepreg composite layup tooling, vacuum form tooling, tool path proofing, lost wax casting masters, master model making, artistic carving blocks, indoor and outdoor signage.  Precision Board Plus PBLT-20 from Coastal Enterprises is formulated with eco-friendly green urethane components. The new material has a certified carbon footprint of 3 to 1 and a certified rapidly renewable green resource content of 23.9%. This means each 3”x 4’x8’ sheet of PBLT-20 saves 38.5 pounds of plastic material which assists meeting in LEED requirements for green buildings. Thus, the increasing applications of precision boards drive the tooling board market.

Tooling Board Market Challenges

• High Production Cost

Tooling boards are made from filled polymer materials. When bonded together, these boards form larger blanks and blocks that are used to create models of CNC-machined tooling. The tooling board market is capital-intensive and requires significant investments in the initial stages. Tooling board materials are useful for creating durable, reusable tools, prototypes, models, and patterns for use in the motorsport, automotive, aerospace, and marine industries. The raw materials required for the production of tooling boards made of polyurethane and epoxy are expensive. Epoxy resins are used for the production of epoxy tooling boards. In the US in September 2020, epoxy resin prices were around US$3011 per ton and in June 2021, the prices of epoxy resins were US$4610 per ton owing to a shortage of feedstock chemicals. Such factors can prove to be a challenge for the market.

Tooling Board Market Landscape

Technology launches, acquisitions, and R&D activities are key strategies adopted by players in the Tooling Board Market. Tooling Board Market top 10 companies include:

1. RAMPF Group
2. Trelleborg AB
3. Sika Group
4. Huntsman Corporation
5. PolyTek Development Corp.
6. CFP Composites
7. BCC Products Inc.
8. Base Group
9. Curbell Plastics
10. General Plastics 

Recent Developments

• In May 2021, Trelleborg launched its new TC350 castable epoxy tooling solution. TC350 is a specialized high-temperature, low-density syntactic epoxy tooling board, supporting the creation of parts for use in a range of industries, such as aerospace, automotive and marine. The tooling board is compatible with carbon fiber, polypropylene, and glass fiber-reinforced plastics used in the manufacturing of electric vehicles
• In November 2020, RAMPF Tooling Solutions, the world’s largest producer of high-performance board materials, entered a sales partnership with MODELCO, a Swedish supplier of a premium model- and mold-making materials to the car, truck, and maritime industries in the Nordic markets. 

Relevant Reports

Polyurethanes Market- Forecast (2021-2026)

Report Code: CMR 0074

CNC Machine Tool Market- Forecast (2021-2026)

Report Code: ESR 0710 

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