The techniques of repoussé date from Antiquity and have been used widely with gold and silver for fine detailed work and with copper, tin, and bronze for larger sculptures. Among the most famous classical pieces using this technique are the bronze Greek armour plates from the 3rd century BC. […]
Repoussé (French pronunciation: [ʀəpuse] or repoussage [ʀəpusaʒ] is a metalworking technique in which a malleable metal is ornamented or shaped by hammering from the reverse side. […]
Blanking is a shearing process where a punch and die are used to create a blank from sheet metal or a plate. The blank is workpiece ejected from the starting stock. The process and machinery are usually the same as that used in piercing, except that the piece being punched out in the piercing process [...]
There are three basic types of bending on a press brake, each is defined by the relationship of the end tool position to the thickness of the material. These three are Air Bending, Bottoming and Coining. The configuration of the tools for these three types of bending are nearly identical. […]
Competitiveness and price pressure in the injection molding industry has influenced many OEMs, molders and mold manufacturers to look for new ways to survive and thrive in their regional and global markets. […]
Step back for a moment and think about the voices we’ve been listening to over the past 10 years—what do you remember? Separate voices.Special interests have called for special considerations. Specific industries and associations and lobbyists represented their own interests—often with the best of intentions—that resulted in fractured, disjointed, poorly managed tactics that led to [...]
For years, the focus of mold base development has been toward providing a steel with higher mechanical properties for the user of the mold bases; however, when these higher strength alloys are used, machining has not been optimized for the toolmaker, […]
Finding new ways to ensure superior mold performance is a goal most people share. The technologies that are available are impressive, and more are becoming available every day. One of the latest is x-ray spectrometry, and it can help take the guesswork out of surface treatment. […]
Performance requirements for hot runners are becoming more demanding as technology advances and applications grow in complexity. Increased resin pricing and the need for automation are making direct gating of even the smallest parts a necessity. Customers expect good quality parts from every cavity—where the hot runner plays a key role in delivering the melt [...]
Many of you have probably heard of self-venting or gas permeable mold steel, but are not totally familiar with it. Gas permeable mold steel is a sintered, pre-hardened to 35 HRc material with porosity in the range of 20 to 30 percent by volume. A system of interconnected micron-sized pores is dispersed throughout the material. [...]