At William Hughes, we specialise in delivering high-precision wire form prototypes and spring prototypes with world-leading expertise for sectors such as automotive, aerospace, military and medical. Our in-house prototyping capability enables us to accelerate development cycles while meeting the most exacting performance, dimensional, and finish requirements. Our expertise in precision-engineered wire component design ensures that each prototype adheres to stringent specifications, particularly concerning load-bearing capabilities and dimensional tolerances. By integrating advanced CNC technology and robotic automation, we guarantee consistency and reliability in every component we produce.
Rapid Prototyping for Wire Forms and Springs
Our engineering prototyping team plays a critical role in transforming complex design concepts into physical, functional wire and spring components, where load tolerance, spring force, and dimensional accuracy must be achieved within microns. Using advanced CNC coiling machines, we’re able to continuously monitor spring length as it comes off the machine, applying Statistical Process Control (SPC) to reject out-of-spec components in real time. This approach ensures highly repeatable tolerances across low- and medium-volume prototype runs.
Our dedicated toolmaking facility enables rapid production of prototype jigs, forming tools, and inspection gauges. This reduces tooling lead times significantly, particularly for highly specialised or low-volume components.
We work collaboratively with R&D, procurement, and QA teams to ensure that each prototype not only meets the specified load characteristics, but is optimised for cost, manufacturability, and post-process finishing. Our extensive experience in wire forms and spring metallurgy means we can proactively advise on material selection, forming tolerances, and surface finishing, including corrosion-resistant coatings like electrophoretic painting and bespoke wire painting for environmental performance or colour-coding.
To ensure every measurement is accurate from the outset, we utilise fast, non-contact scanning systems – ideal for benchmarking geometric precision before committing to production tooling.
All prototyping is carried out under ISO 9001 and IATF 16949 standards, reinforcing our commitment to rigorous quality management and product traceability.
Types of Wire Form Prototyping
We offer an extensive range of prototyping services to support component validation, pre-production trials, and full-scale production testing. Every prototype is engineered to meet your application’s specific load curves, geometric tolerances, and operational environment.
Approvals Include:
ISO 9001, IATF 16949, PPAP, IMDS, REACH and RoHS compliance – aligned with automotive and aerospace quality systems.
Automation in Wire Form Prototyping
Innovation is central to our prototyping and manufacturing operations. William Hughes has invested heavily in automation and robotics, with UK-based engineering teams working at the forefront of robotic forming and automated testing. Our innovation supports feasibility testing, finite element analysis (FEA), and repetitive prototyping to refine mechanical performance before scale-up.
Rapid prototyping is enabled not only by advanced machinery but by our agile processes. Material availability is rarely a bottleneck as our wire stockholding spans a wide range of diameters, alloys, and coatings, allowing development programmes to proceed without delay.
Through collaborative partnerships with OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, we’ve developed a number of industry-first forming methods and finishing combinations that maximise both component yield and product lifespan. For example, by integrating SPC and automated load testing into our CNC lines, we can evaluate the spring force under real-world conditions, dramatically improving first-time pass rates for customers.
Case Study For The Kickdown Piston Spring
A global automotive OEM approached William Hughes with a challenge to improve the yield of a critical accelerator mechanism component – the kickdown piston spring – which was failing to meet load tolerances in 20% of units.
Our team engineered a precision prototype using spring steel, CNC wound with closed-loop feedback for real-time load monitoring. Post-winding, each spring was compressed and load-tested via our fully automated system, enabling immediate pass/fail decisioning.
We were able to reduce the component load deviation and increase the customer’s production line yield from 80% to over 97%. This prototype was later scaled into mass production, demonstrating our ability to turn conceptual challenges into scalable manufacturing solutions.
The speed at which the prototype could be developed was aided by our in-house jig production, wire stock availability, and fully integrated inspection tools – a clear demonstration of how rapid prototyping feeds directly into commercial success.
Quality & Inspection Techniques
Our prototyping services are underpinned by comprehensive quality assurance. From the moment a prototype is formed, it is subject to a battery of non-destructive tests and visual inspections to ensure that dimensional tolerances, mechanical properties, and surface finishes meet specification.
Inspection protocols include:
- Real-time Load Testing – Springs are automatically compressed and tested for load force.
- Gauge and Vision System Inspection – Automated validation of formed shapes and dimensions.
High-speed, non-contact scanning is also used during the development process to check the accuracy of complex geometries against digital models – ideal for first-off validations. Every prototype is logged and traceable to its material batch, machine parameters, and operator, ensuring transparency and repeatability from sample to scale-up.