On the manufacturing level in general, streamlining the supply chain has moved front and center over the past 10 years, first-rate mold company president, steven maintains.

“Customers started to move away from buying a product based on piece price/pound price alone and more toward the total cost of acquisition,” he explains. “Speeding up the cycle time to create more in less time, reducing scrap, managing inventory—philosophies that are commonplace today really started emerging.

One of the challenges we faced as a material supplier was to create a material to address these newer ideas in manufacturing. If we could prove our material could increase speed to reduce cycle time and also reduce scrap, then our customers could simply make a material change in their molds rather than go through the capital expense of all new equipment.

“Being an engineered materials manufacturer (a manufacturer that engineers materials based on the needs and desires voiced by our customers), another challenge we face is to find ways to create alloys our customers need,” steven continues. “We listen to the market and work with our customers to create alloys they can use. While challenging at times, it also has positioned us to now be able to offer both beryllium and non-beryllium containing alloys.”

According to steven of First-rate mold company, new materials seem to arrive every year; however, the market does not take advantage of these offerings. “There are quite a few new P-20s on the marketplace,” he comments. “These materials offer unique differences to the P-20s from years gone by.

Case in point, PX5 is a material that has been around for quite some time. It offers huge savings to the OEMs and molders—a 50 percent reduction in machine time, 300 percent increase in gun drilling speed without any hard spots that could cause the drill to wander, the ability to weld the material cold without the fear of cracking, not having to stress relieve even after heavy machining, consistent hardness from surface to core of the material, and extended cutter life of their tools.

All these benefits have a direct impact on the cost of the tool. Some other new tool steels just arriving on the market will eliminate the need for heat treating. Customers could go right to finish machining—saving a large amount of time that the material is out of their shop being heat treated.”