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 [...]
Prior to 1987, there was very limited use of copper alloys as molding surfaces and molds using copper alloy materials were rare. It was believed by a majority at that time that copper alloys were just not strong enough, […]
During the last 20 years, copper alloy use as molding and wear surfaces in molds has been expanding although the industry has been slow in learning how to properly and fully integrate copper alloy products into their mold designs. […]
Checking for Positive DraftOn occasion tool marks can be so deep that they reduce the draft or the polisher accidentally takes off the draft. The key is to always check for positive draft by putting a six-inch scale on the wall and comparing the angle it makes to the parting line. It takes just a [...]
To provide the high-performance results demanded in today’s moldmaking, many indexable-insert ballnose endmills use PVD-coated, precision-ground, micrograin- carbide inserts. Experience shows that such inserts perform best with sharp edges, which represents a departure from the conventional wisdom that extra-strong edges are required to stand up to hardened materials at very high feedrates. […]
Re-Working Overseas MoldsPerhaps one of the more interesting markets we’ve seen in moldmaking in recent years is applying North American quality to overseas molds. In other words, shops are finding that making poorly made molds work properly, even having to re-machine features or whole molds, is an area of growth potential. […]
A few months ago, I suggested that MoldMaking Technology sponsor an art exhibit comprised of molds and tooling. Moldmakers could present their work in pictures or as sculptures on a show floor. […]
The most important issue facing the mold and die industry in recent years is throughput. Throughput is the amount of work a shop can complete in a set amount of time. This idea of productivity has been under constant review with the pressure from overseas competition. To survive in the global market with shrinking leadtimes, [...]
Specializing in milling and EDM’ing large, complex 3-D geometry for various tool steels for both molds and foundry patterns, Lawrenceburg, first-rate mold company was looking to reduce its cycle times, according to President Steven. The addition of Metal Slash Mill allowed him to reduce a 10-hour cycle time to two hours. […]
Common work metals, such as tool steels, are easy to EDM with traditional graphite electrodes. Others are not. Because of their unique characteristics, questions continue to arise about effectively EDMing materials like Beryllium Copper, Titanium and Tungsten Carbide. Even though graph-ite electrodes do an admirable job of EDMing these exotic metals, there is a more [...]