EDM Pages 93 to 98 How One Lean Shop Automated Its EDM By Peggy Malnati Pyramid Molding Group (PMG) started operations as a tool and die shop in 1968. The company expanded its toolmaking capabilities in 1979 by purchasing cus-tom injection molder Pyramid Plastics. Today, the Industrial Molds Division of PMG produces and repairs approxi-mately 125 injection molds annually with a lean team of just 30 workers and 20 administrative staff. Both moldmaking and molding sides of PMG have long focused on continu-ous improvement to maximize design The Industrial Molds Div. of Pyramid Molding Group (PMG), based in Rockford, Illinois, produces and repairs ~125 injection molds/year with a very lean staff of 30 workers on the shop fl oor. The company largely and manufacturing eficiencies and produces high-cavitation/precision production tools in steel. Many of these tools are used by Industrial’s stay competitive. When exploring solu-sister company, Pyramid Plastics Div., to injection mold parts for customers in a wide range of industries. In tions to manufacturing bottlenecks addition to designing molds and parts and making and servicing injection molds, as well as acting as a landing that resulted from running such a lean house for offshore molds and molding parts, PMG also provides various secondary-fi nishing operations. operation, PMG decided to gradually incorporate automated EDM and high-speed machining operations, changes that also necessitated a that pallet and its workpiece are handled by robots or machined streamlined moldmaking planning process. or EDM’d, machines download and read all programming before Starting around 2002, Industrial Molds purchased several beginning their job, enabling Industrial to run its machines sinker EDMs, which came equipped with robots and toolhold-unattended on nights and weekends without sacriicing accu-ers from automation supplier Erowa AG. Circa 2005, Industrial racy. Workpieces are held irmly on their pallet, but pallets can made a signiicant investment in Erowa’s palletization/tooling, be inserted and removed quickly and positioned very accurately. RFID chip systems, JMS ProductionLine (JMSpro) workflow-The way Industrial Molds operates shows the advantages of management software and more robots to automate an EDM the system. For example, work flows from station to station and, later, a milling cell. with little setup time on a machine but still maximizes each Industrial later added two linear driveline sinker EDMs and machine’s capacity. two CNC machines to feed the faster EDMs. To maximize the For any company to take full advantage of their automa-eficiency of the new machines, Industrial also invested in more tion system, they need to have good processes and practices of Erowa’s robots and tooling systems to fully automate the in place. Many in the industry still believe automation is only new EDM/electrode machining cells. for high-volume/low-mix-type manufacturing where large Although increased use of Erowa automation technology numbers of the same product are produced — work typical for didn’t change how Industrial designed its molds, it had a big injection molders, but not moldmakers. impact on its upfront planning process for manufacturing each Many mold and die shop owners believe that they are not workpiece to maximize eficiency and minimize production a itting candidate for automation because they manufacture time. At the start of each project, all key players meet to review a high mix of products that they produce in low volume, printouts of all worksheets for a given job, as well as to decide but what they don’t realize is that automation products like how to orient each workpiece on its pallet, how the robot should Erowa’s were designed for mold and die shops. pick up the pallet and orient it on each HSM or EDM machine FOR MORE INFORMATION and how the workpiece should travel through the shop. Industrial Molds Div. of Pyramid Molding Group / industrialmolds.com Once the planning meeting is over, all information is ready to Jaclyn Kolodziej, Marketing Manager be input into JMSpro and assigned to a particular job and RFID Erowa Technology Inc. / erowa.com/en chip number. That chip is then attached to the pallet that will Chris Norman, President & COO carry the workpiece throughout Industrial’s facility. So, whenever Image courtesy of Industrial Molds Div. of Pyramid Molding Group. 98 MoldMaking M g Technology y — — JU JULY 2022