University Buys 200 SolidWorks Licenses
University of Glasgow mechanical engineering students will soon hone their 3D CAD skills by using SolidWorks® Education Edition software to design everything from race cars to bridges as they prep...
Mold Market Activity Levels Decline, 42.7 Total Mold Business Index for June 2008
The total mold Business Index is a weighted average of the sub-indices for new orders, production, employees, backlog, exports and supplier deliveries. Many manufacturing sectors experience a seasonal...
The Seven Ds of a Buy-Sell Agreement
My client handed me his 13-year old buy-sell agreement. The business value, specified as a fixed amount, was about 3 percent of the current market value. Any problems here? First, the value is not cur...
New RP Technology Reduces Costs, Leadtimes
A rapid tooling process has been developed using stereolithography (SL) and a nanocomposite resin, which can result in significant savings in both leadtimes and costs. The process can be used to make ...
How Online Communities Can Help Your Business, Part 3
In this final installment of this three-part column, let’s look at how online communities (OCs) can have a positive impact on—and support—your business’ strategic development a...
High-Precision Molds Pay Off for P&G
Procter & Gamble stresses speed, repeatability and long life to maximize return in commodity production. High-tech mold design and consumer products might not seem like an obvious fit, but the com...
Determining Maximum Mold Cycle Counts
Ongoing data collection and visual inspection of tooling and parts is the only method that will allow you to balance maximizing tooling life, production capability and mold reliability. The first prod...
The Custom Manufacturing Megatrend: A New Industrial Revolution
New methods of manufacturing are bringing about fundamental change in the way products are designed and delivered. With advances in additive fabrication (AF), it is now possible to conceive a product ...
Moldmaker Uses an In-Depth Analytical Solution-Based Approach To Mold Flow Analysis
MoldFlow consulting firm assists mold shop as it approached a complex molding program for its customer, Cessna Aircraft Company. CAE Services Corporation is a silver-certified Moldflow consulting firm...
Multi-Cavity Mold Issues Solved with Melt Rotation Process
Toolroom supervisor shares his experience with a rheological control solution to some obvious and some not-so-obvious challenges with product and color variations in a multi-cavity mold. At first glan...
Automation, Innovation Chart EDM’s Course
Advances in EDM technology—including increased automation and combining machining processes to get the job done as efficiently as possible—help EDM stay afloat and keep moldmakers successf...
Machining Madness
The industry’s demand for higher quality, faster turnaround times and lower prices in the last decade has resulted in dramatic improvements in high speed machining as well as controls and spindl...
Build-Ups for Maintenance: Benefit or Band-Aid?
When is providing build-ups on tooling appropriate and when is it just a band-aid on a problem that could lead to more extensive repairs later? One maintenance issue that often creeps up is the reques...
A Workholding Solution for Gun Drilling
Gun drilling is one area for which moldmakers have been slow to accept permanent electro magnets, which can reduce workholding and toolholding setups by 50 to 70 percent. Gun drilling is an integral p...
Hot Runner Stack Molds: A Great Cost-Cutting Solution
How to choose the right manifold system for your stack molds. During the concept phase of a new project the option of selecting a stack mold is often overlooked because many mold designers are unfamil...
Electrically Actuated Valve Gates: An Emerging Hot Runner Technology
Electrically actuated valve stems promise more control, cleaner actuation, closer pitch spacing, higher quality gates and reduced maintenance. A new technology for actuating stems in valve gated hot r...
China’s futures trading volume up 76 percent in July
China’s futures market witnessed a rapid growth in trade volume in July, led by an active trade in farm products such as sugar, soybeans, and aluminum. Trade volume hit 6.45 trillion yuan (948 b...
It’s All Relative …
If you travel to Europe anytime soon, try not to gulp too hard when you look at the prices on a restaurant menu or in a shop-window display. If you want to get a sense of relative value, just close yo...
Blow Molders & Thermoformers Try Plastic Rapid Tooling
Rapid prototyping (RP) equipment is increasingly being used to manufacture prototype and short-run production molds for blow molded and thermoformed parts. A range of RP processes including fused-depo...
New Low-Pressure Process Molds Long Profiles On Small Presses
A new process that can produce long, thin-walled profiles and strips with functional or decorative geometries integrated in the part in a single step was developed by IB Steiner engineering consultant...