System 3R USA Inc.

In 1945, George Carson dreamt of owning his own business. So he founded Carson Tool & Mold (Kennesaw, GA) in his garage, and hired his first employee—George Myers. Carson ran the shop until he retired in 1988 and Myers continued to build the business, passing the reins to his son David, who currently serves as president after purchasing the company in 1996.

JM Mold South, Inc.: Constant Reinvention Results in Growth, Success.

The use of automation continues to rise as mold manufacturers respond to industry demand of constantly shrinking leadtimes. Manufacturers and suppliers have taken action with better, faster equipment and processes.

Traditionally, cross rail systems for Wire EDMs were machine dependent.

System 3R USA, Inc. (Elk Grove Village, IL) is constantly working to improve product performance, particularly with a view to finding new fields of application.

System 3R International AB / System 3R USA Inc. (Elk Grove Village, IL) has developed a high damping palletized workholding system for reducing vibration in machining processes especially, in milling.

This shop—never content to rest on its laurels—combines lean initiatives and the latest in technology to be a one-stop shop for its customers and win the MoldMaking Technology 2008 Leadtime Leader Award: Small Shop.

Alliances with a medical molding facility and operations overseas allow this producer of high cavitation valve molds for the medical industry to grow and continue thriving.

The automation route has three key milestones: (1) tooling, (2) palletization and (3) robots, all of which should neatly slot into each other and help govern the speed of change.

Heavily relying on lights-out manufacturing coupled with a niche market in complex mold manufacture, this moldmaker lands its fourth accolade as a Leadtime Leader—three times as a winner and this year’s Leadtime Leader: Small Shop Honorable Mention.

System 3R USA, Inc. (Elk Grove Village, IL) will show a variety of new products at Westec.

Focusing on a niche in the automotive headlap reflector market—coupled with the most advanced technologies and mold manufacturing techniques—lights the way for this moldmaker’s 2007 Leadtime Leader Award: Large Shop.

Using a group rather than one person and changing the order of inspection is a win-win for this moldmaker—repeatable results with no rework.

This moldmaker proves that dedication to its customers combined with a will to thrive in a global marketplace is the right formula to win the MoldMaking Technology 2006 Leadtime Leader Award: Large Shop.

Macro pallet-mounted gage balls reduce overall costs in electrode machining/manufacturing and reduce leadtime by 25 percent.

By automating its EDM department, F&S Tool has been able to increase sales by 50 percent.

Excell Machine and Tool saw significant benefits by automating its graphite machining center.