Plastic Engineering

Sentinel Plastics Ltd is a plastic engineering company built on the core values of quality, reliability, experience, cost efficiency, and repeatability. Our strength lies in providing a comprehensive, custom engineering service, delivering precision‑machined plastic components tailored to each customer’s exact specifications and performance requirements.

Can all plastics be machined and fabricated?

Virtually all engineering and insulation plastics can be machined and fabricated, but each material behaves differently during the process. A thorough understanding of how various engineering and industrial plastics respond to machining is essential. With many years of experience, Sentinel Plastics has perfected the techniques needed to achieve consistent precision and high‑quality results across a wide range of materials.

How we Manufacture Engineering Plastic Parts:

CNC Lathes Turning Plastic

A common question we’re asked is whether industrial engineering plastics can be turned on a lathe. The answer is yes — much like milling, most plastics can be machined into high‑precision components. However, it takes an experienced engineering plastics company, such as Sentinel Plastics, to successfully machine‑fabricate the many different material types, each with its own unique challenges.

Plastic machining generally lends itself best to solid, rigid materials such as Acetal, Polycarbonate, ABS, fibre‑reinforced thermosetting plastics, reinforced Nylon, Acrylic, and PEEK, all of which offer good dimensional stability. While less rigid plastics can also be machined, they are more prone to flexing and deformation during cutting, which makes achieving tight tolerances and fine surface finishes significantly more difficult.

Our customers can be confident that because we work exclusively with plastic materials, we bring a level of specialised focus and expertise that sets us apart from many UK competitors. Unlike companies that focus primarily on metal machining or only a few types of plastics, we offer broad capabilities across a wide range of materials and applications — giving us the flexibility to deliver the right solution for every project.

Examples of just some commonly Machined materials are Nylon 6, Cast Nylon, Nylatron MoS2, Glass filled Nylon, Polyester Glass, EM42, Tufnol®, HDPE, LDPE, PE1000, PE500, PTFE, Teflon, PVDF, Acetal, Delrin, Also Peek, Arnite, SRBP, SRBF, Polypropylene, Polycarbonate, Perspex and Epoxy Glass.

Simply put — it’s all about knowledge. Knowledge gained through experience, and a dedication to understanding our customers’ needs. At Sentinel Plastics Ltd, client satisfaction is at the heart of everything we do.

As an ISO 9001:2018‑certified CNC plastic machining and fabrication company, we take pride in the value we bring to every partnership. When you work with us, you benefit from:

Over 30 years of experience in CNC plastic manufacturing.

Deep knowledge of specialised, engineering, and industrial plastics.

Extensive machining capacity and strong technical expertise.

Sub‑assembly and fabrication capabilities.

A focused approach — we work only with plastics, not metals.

Flexibility to accommodate quick turnarounds and late changes.

And, of course, competitive, cost‑effective pricing.

These are just some of the qualities that enable us to meet even the most challenging design requirements — while building long‑term relationships with our customers across many industries.

Plastic Materials CNC Lathe Machined:

Plastic Engineering

Can all plastics be machined and fabricated?