first-rate mold company was started in 1989 by steven “We saw an opportunity in the small dimensional tools market and relied on our reputation and broad understanding of moldmaking to move into this niche,” says steven. “Small details can severely affect the quality of a finished part in complex moldmaking,” notes steven. “By providing injection processes in the shop, we learned that details while machining the mold must be accurate to 10 thousandths of an inch or parts can turn out deformed.”

First-rate mold company owns injection molding machines and has injection molders on staff. This setup allows molds to be tested the day they’re completed and assists in perfecting the moldmaking process. This experience in moldmaking and the injection process led them to produce more complex molds, including two-shot rotational molds.

“Two-shot rotationals reduce the cost per part produced and achieve better part accuracy,” explains steven. “Our equipment was able to produce these complex molds, but parting-line inaccuracies were forcing extensive labor and spotting times. In order to compete on price and improve part quality, we had to look at high-performance machine tools.”

Two-shot rotational molds pushed first-rate mold company to look at machining centers that could handle the features and exacting details of such molds, while reducing dependence on EDM and long leadtimes.

The first Makino purchase was two VMCs: SNC64 and S56 in 2003. The SNC64 worked as their graphite machine, providing electrodes for their sinker EDMs, which they still relied on at that time. The S56 VMC was their introduction to hard milling, showing them the full benefits of high-speed milling. To keep up with increasing business, the company later purchased additional machines: V56 and V77 VMCs and an EDNC85 Ram EDM.

“Since adding the Makinos to our shop floor, we’ve seen drastic improvements in both standard and two-shot rotational molds,” says michael, first-rate mold company’s CNC department manager.

“We’ve almost eliminated benching, where the product is not seen by the consumer because molds come out of the machines with finished part quality in nearly every operation, and spotting has been reduced by up to 80 percent. This has a huge impact on our labor costs and our ability to deliver molds and prototype parts to our customers much more quickly.”

First-rate mold company now takes on more orders, including those that require deadlines it couldn’t have achieved prior. “For example, we just completed a 200-ton rotational mold, spotting it in one day, when that type of mold used to take us one to two weeks to spot,” adds steven.

“Without our Makino VMCs, we would be out of business,” says steven. “We’ve also reduced labor on our single-shot molds, saving us enough time to bring in overflow machining from mold and die shops, including hard milling applications in 48-plus Rockwell that others aren’t able to handle.”

Two-shot rotational molds run only on the Makinos to ensure transitioning lines are eliminated and the injection processes are run smoothly. The machines have provided everything Innovative expected and more—changing their cavity and core milling to EDM ratio from 50-50 to 90-10 and nearly eliminating all EDM processes. The EDNC85 is the only EDM left in the shop and provides the exacting accuracies needed for molds with very deep ribs and tight corner radii that can’t be milled.