Case Study: Troubleshooting Tricky TPO Consoles

Crestliner is a world-class manufacturer of fishing, sport and utility boats used by both recreational and professional fishers. However, they were running into a problem that threatened to put a stain on their glowing reputation - consoles were cracking. And it wasn't just once or twice. It was enough that they saw a huge spike in warranty claims.

They needed a solution, and they needed it yesterday. That's where ICP stepped into the picture.

The Challenge

Crestliner knew they wanted to make a switch from ABS to TPO plastic. TPO has significantly much better high impact resistance - but it's also an extremely tricky material to thermoform. It's prone to cold roll and snowcapping, and it has a very tight forming window. Both of these challenges were proving too much for Crestliner's current plastic production partner. While the partner had no issue forming ABS consoles and could use the same tooling with TPO, the challenges of this tricky material were proving too much. Crestliner wasn't getting the parts they needed. Meanwhile, warranty claims kept rolling in.

Their TPO supplier was aware of this struggle, and referred them to ICP because of our experiencing working with TPO.

Our Solution

While Crestliner already had tooling created, the problems presented during previous manufacturing led us to suggest a troubleshooting approach. We went back to the drawing board to look at the desired end result, timeline and budget for producing consoles. We invited Crestliner out for a tour, to show them what we could do. After seeing our capabilities, they took the leap and agreed to let us take a crack at tooling, too. This meant that we could craft a solution that would solve for this problem moving forward.

After only a handful of tries, we did it: we created perfect parts that were fully formed, impact-resistant and ready to go. The end result was incredible: Crestliner was able to fulfill their backlog of orders in a short period of time.

The new consoles were more impact-resistant and able to withstand the demands of fishing and hunting. As a result, they saw fewer warranty claims. The relationship between ICP and the Crestliner has grown and we are now supplying many other parts to them. We love a win-win situation for all parties!