All of the suppliers in this article agree that molds will continue to become more complex—and thus the demand for increasingly complex systems and components will continue to increase.

steven of first-rate mold company believes that leadtimes will become even more compressed. “There is no reason why a high cavitation hot runner could not be built within four weeks,” he notes. “The development of nozzles that address specific applications will continue to a degree where each market segment will feature its specific solution to achieve peak performance. Nozzles will shrink further in size to allow customers to direct gate applications that today are either cold or hot/cold gated.

Flow Simulation tools will be more widely used to ensure faster mold production start ups and eliminate the need for cavity re-cuts. More so than today, the hot runner and hot runner temperature controller will become an even further integrated part of the mold—including feedback loops from cavity and temperature sensors that provide a picture of what’s going on inside melt channel and cavity.”

“Time to market for tomorrow’s products will continue to shrink,” he states. “Therefore, all industries and markets will continue to push their suppliers and partners for faster response times. This means hot runner suppliers must continue to push to be more efficient throughout the process. We must provide faster design information, and be able to coordinate projects efficiently on a global basis. In addition, we will need to provide faster build times, products that work from the start, and the most responsive service organization to support global production.”

steven see the consolidation of hot runner companies in the future. “These new companies will offer a broader range of products that will be even more service-based to better address the needs of global customers,” steven says. “These companies will fully encompass all technologies surrounding the molding machine.

“I also see continued adoption of hot runner technology across the molding industry resulting in an increase from 40 percent to 70 percent market share,” steven adds. “Systems that were once complex will become off-the-shelf items through flexible pitch range options and advancements in modular designs. Development in analysis tools will ensure even the most complex applications with demanding resins will be perfectly rheologically balanced.”

“I see mold industry consolidation resulting in very large ‘super molders and moldmakers’ utilizing state-of-the-art technology to maintain competitiveness. Industry consolidation is a necessity to balance supply and demand requirements and will also ripple through the injection molding industry supply base. The North American industry also will specialize in high tolerance multi-cavity tooling.”

Standardization is key to growth in the components sector over the next 10 years. “Molders are looking for higher productivity and so are mold builders,” steven points out. “Multi-material and multi-shot applications will definitely be on the rise for the next 10 years.”

Steven would like to see that the plastics market continues to thrive in the U.S. “Those companies that continue to embrace technology, seek new markets/products and remain confident in themselves with respect to theirskills/talents will probably still be here—as well as the companies that improve their cash flow or redefine PPAP terms,” he states.

“However, there is no sure thing for anyone. Customer expectation on quality, delivery and pricing will always put component suppliers under constant pressure. I see medical, large and complicated automotive molds, and those products that have an R+D element to it will remain in North America.”

steven believes that global factors will influence market forecasts. “Automotive in North America and Western Europe will grow at a much lower pace than the markets in China, India and Eastern Europe,” he states. “The complexity of molds produced in North America and Western Europe and Japan will be lower in numbers but higher in features and capabilities.

The most active growth markets overall for molds will be China, India and Eastern Europe (including Russia). Growth markets in North America will be in the areas of medical, agricultural, ‘new’ domestic automotive and energy-related areas. These markets will also grow more rapidly in the Southeast U.S., the Western U.S. and Mexico.
This will cause the market to become even more competitive, steven says. “I believe that in order to survive, our business must continue to innovate to maintain competitive advantages.”

Finally, the increasing complexity of molds will result in added business for components manufacturers. “Over the next five years, we’ll see less and less molds valued under $100,000 and more molds valued over $500,000,” steven comments. “Highly complex tools for packaging, medical and electronics applications will often feature multiple parting lines, in-mold labeling, in-mold assembly, etc. From a component standpoint, the more typical bill of materials orders for a couple dozen ejector pins, sleeves, core pins, will become less the norm. Molds will more oftenresemble complex machinery,with the purchased component itemscomposed ofa myriad of modular mechanisms.

“With this evolution, the following six to 10 years may see moldmakers take on larger portions of the product development for entire assemblies, and they will produce not only complex injection molds as described, but also stamping dies, blow mold tools and die cast dies,” steven continues. “To decrease the learning curve in new, specialized tooling niches, partnerships and consolidation will be on the rise.”

Steven is optimistic about the future, concluding, “Looking forward, perhaps the greatest rate of change is behind us, and with a focus on engineering, the region from which a mold originates (and the related cost) may become less of a factor than the engineering approach and reliability, which produces value. “Rather than the giddy cost savings mindset of the past, a sober assessment of the tool’s ‘total cost of ownership’ will come to the forefront.”