3 Technologies to Help Fill the Skills Gap

The moldmaking and plastics industry faces an unprecedented labor crunch exacerbated by a fragile international supply chain and rapidly growing domestic demand. With reshoring on the rise, the issue of tooling lead times and costs has reached a critical point. Robotics, simulation software and metal 3D printing can significantly reduce the labor required during the moldmaking process, enabling shorter lead times and lower costs. Shops embracing these technologies are solving labor shortages and ensuring longevity as labor scarcity continues.

1. Robotics

Shops can use robots to automate parts of the toolmaking process, for example, an EDM cell that automatically swaps sinker EDM electrodes, allowing the machine to run lights out without needing a user to change the electrodes manually. A shop can also palletize workpieces, automatically enabling robotics to move pieces from machine to machine. These systems help to eliminate the impact of part setup time and reduce your non-value-added costs by providing a constant flow of parts to the machines, keeping them running. Palletization also improves tolerances and part consistency since tools aren’t being refixtured when moved between machines. While setup can be expensive and requires highly skilled labor, palletization combined with robotics can dramatically increase shop and machine efficiency. 

Robotics, simulation software and metal 3D printing can significantly reduce the labor required during the moldmaking process, enabling shorter lead times and lower costs.

2. Simulation

To ensure you optimize the labor you do have, simulation products help understand how molds move through your shop, enabling the identification of backups before they happen. For example, discrete event simulation software that models and simulates a digital twin of your shop floor — including robots, automation, material handling systems and people — to improve shopfloor performance. Once the digital twin is created, experiments can be run to determine the results of different equipment and labor distributions.

3. Metal 3D Printing

Metal 3D printing can automate up to 95% of a mold build with minimal user interaction. For example, printing H13 tool inserts that are close to final after printing. Depending on the surface finish and tolerance required, printed inserts only require grinding to fit into the mold base and finish the ejector pin holes. This small amount of finishing is enabled via technology that prints parts with a D2 surface finish comparable to sinker EDMs and tolerances of ±0.001 inch per inch. Since the printer requires no user interaction during printing and only an hour to set up, it reduces the amount of labor required to build a tool, enabling moldmakers to focus on other critical tasks and increase shop throughput.