The evolution and revolution of technology has made mold builders more sophisticated and resourceful; and, more so now than ever before—as the trying economy and outsourcing take their toll—mold builders are seeking out value-added services and competitive advantages. Sensor technology is one such area. […]
A common challenge faced by moldmakers is to produce acceptable parts with minimum cycle time. As cooling time accounts for most of the cycle time, reducing the cooling time of a part will considerably reduce the cycle time. However, reducing the cooling time also may result in problems, such as excessive part warpage, high part [...]
Runner sizing is a very important decision for a moldmaker. In hot runners, the moldmaker may seek to minimize the runner diameters in order to reduce melt residence time, reduce color change cycles or allow tighter pitch for drops. […]
While measuring the mold can be both useful and necessary, this approach poses certain problems: […]
Whatever the item a company intends to produce, creating a prototype is crucial to the design process. Moldmakers would be wise to stay on top of technology developments and consider their use to improve the service they provide. Following are four reasons why prototyping is important. […]
In 2003, a revolutionary additive metal fabrication technology was introduced to the North American market called Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS)1. Over the course of the past five years, this technology has gradually become better known to many companies with primary interest being the production of direct to metal parts versus inserts. […]
3M is world-renowned for its innovation. With more than 55,000 products, 30-plus core technologies and leadership in major markets, 3M serves as an example to other manufacturers of efficient, innovative product development. […]
There are three powerful steps to im-proving moldmaking power and those who have implemented these steps are well on the way to becoming the ultimate toolmakers in their industry. […]
The benefits for mold manufacturers who use digital manufacturing are plenty, but to name a few: uninterrupted production, the ability to validate geometry prior to incurring costs from wasted materials, the capability to recreate geometries of end of life products if the inventory is eliminated; and, of course, the reduction in cost over machining to [...]
Today there are many prototyping technologies to support the full development cycle of a product from initial idea to manufacturing full-scale parts to low-volume production. Read this brief overview about the advantages and disadvantages for two of the most popular additive technologies used for prototyping and production. With complementary strengths and weaknesses, one of these [...]