Got Any Useful Moldmaking Education and Training Resources?

This is especially important in light of the continued need for skilled workers and the fundamental training and education that is required.

As you settle into the warmer weather, I am assigning you a summer project (remember those from your early school days ?). First, I want you to make two lists: (1) “basic” moldmaking-specific teaching resources, such as books, videos, webinars or curricula and (2) successful moldmaking-specific apprenticeships, technical schools, university classes, training initiatives or workshops, and send those lists to me. Then the MMT team will review the entries and begin to profile and promote each one. 

Over the past few years, I’ve heard some inspiring stories — from mold builders establishing innovative internal training strategies to others partnering up with local and national groups to develop training solutions —so I know these programs are out there!

And the lack of skilled labor and training is not just a national problem; it is a worldwide dilemma. For example, not too long ago, a mold builder in Israel contacted me looking for a moldmaking course syllabus because they are also struggling to find experienced moldmakers, thus the need to train the workers they do have in the facility on the basics of moldmaking.

They want a six-month on-the-job training course with one to two days of class instruction each week — 300 teaching hours focused on the fundamentals of mold construction, design, engineering and maintenance. Again, the need for fundamentals!

Can you help MMT guide our current moldmaking workforce with the fundamentals then onto the technology and trends of the future of modern mold manufacturing?

I turned to MMT’s editorial advisory board for help. They first reminded me of that infamous book, “What is a Mold—An Introduction to Plastic Injection Molding and Injection Mold Construction,” authored by the Training Committee at Tech Mold Inc. in the late 90s. The book notes, “People from trades outside of moldmaking possess excellent skills in metalworking or machining operations that are compatible with the skills necessary to make injection molds, but the missing link is understanding the moldmaking industry and the peculiarities of how a mold is designed and built. It is toward this end that this manual has been written.” This book was an invaluable reference tool for me when we launched MMT in 1998.

Plus, we now have Bruce Catoen & Herbert Rees’ “Injection Mold Design Handbook,” another resource that takes the reader through conceptualizing and designing an injection mold.

On top of that, MMT has more than 20 years of content, so to be part of the solution, we started to comb through the articles to identify features covering fundamental principles and processes that we can highlight for anyone to access on our website. As a result, we recently launched a Back to Basics column in each print issue and development is underway for a New to Moldmaking? Start Here microsite to house MMT’s more basic content.

So, can you help MMT guide our current moldmaking workforce with  fundamentals on the technology and trends of the future of modern mold manufacturing?