The 32-cavity mold landed on our bench and looked like any other mold than had been run hard and put away wet. It was covered in grime and resin dust and after a 90-mile truck ride, was still dripping water out of every fitting. The only information we had was a verbal comment that “It [...]
Moldmakers were the first wave of manufacturers affected by the outsourcing trend that pushed manufacturing into China. But now we’re seeing that business is coming back . Culture and geography have helped provide a temporary stay for domestic moldmakers. […]
We are at the start of a New Year and we are at the start of a new period of economic recovery. […]
There have always been examples and anecdotes in the past about molders getting burned with overseas tooling and projects returning, yet foreign tooling increased. Now however, there have been changes in the global landscape that have led to an evolved mindset where the cheaper is better mantra does not hold up over the long run. [...]
Have you bought a new car recently? If you have, think about how you used the Internet to research that purchase—you likely checked out the make and model, looked at options and features, and then approached the dealer to negotiate and place an order. […]
Add to this phenomenon the evolution of manufacturing into a global ecosystem, and a perfect storm has formed that places enormous challenges on you and all North American SMMs.A large part of the North American manufacturing business ecosystem and its protocols that formed within them were based on geo-economic conditions: […]
Google has never answered a question. Google doesn’t create content. Google cannot give you a feedrate, the latest offers from your cutting tool or machine tool rep, or your best options for titanium or 401. […]
It is no secret that diversification is an essential strategy to today’s mold manufacturers—especially those with heavy involvement in the automotive industry. As a result, automotive mold manufacturers may want to consider branching out into the aerospace market—for tooling, […]
Thermoforming has benefited from applications of engineering technology, although the basic forming process is very similar to what was invented many years ago. Microprocessor and computer controls on more modern machinery allows for greatly increased process control and repeatability of same-job setups from one production run to the next, usually with the ability to save [...]
There are two general thermoforming process categories. Sheet thickness less than 1.5 mm (0.060 inches) is usually delivered to the thermoforming machine from rolls or from a sheet extruder. […]