It is common knowledge that the industry has become increasingly competitive over the last decade—and moldmakers have responded in kind with shorter leadtimes while cutting costs and improving quality. To keep up with their customers, manufacturers and suppliers of CAD/CAM technology also have been pushing the envelope to create more sophisticated software that can address their customers’ needs.

CAD/CAM technology must be able to work with advances made in cutting tools, high-speed machining and 3-D technology.

Expanding global moldmaking has put the industry into a more competitive situation, For example, the migration of mold work has moved from traditional strongholds to lower cost markets. Other leading moldmaking nations (like Portugal and Brazil for instance) are losing work to lower cost markets. Shops are being forced to reduce their own production costs and have had to invest in more efficient techniques and technologies, such as better machine tools and more efficient CAD/CAM software programs.

Some mold shops are having to find more diverse work and looking at other means to make money,They are continuing with their existing mold work, but also are picking up other work in specialized applications taking advantage of their knowledge and machine capabilities, such as multiaxis machining. In this case, using your machine tools and CAD/CAM software package to their full potential in order to explore other areas of work can lead to dramatic success despite a reduction in some types of mold work.

customer demand can be broken down into three categories—more complex tooling as designs become more sophisticated and part consolidation adds more features to each component; faster delivery times for tooling as part of the general demand for faster product development across all industries; and higher quality resulting from a growing emphasis on consistently better products and an increased inclination to resort to litigation if there are problems with product performance.