Trade Fair Takeaways

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(L to R) Glenn Starkey, SPE Mold Making and Mold Design Division Chair; Christina Fuges, MoldMaking Technology; Jill Brandts, SPI Western Moldmakers Division; and Cyndi Kustush, SPE Mold Making and Mold Design Division.

1. Anything with a handle is a candidate for conformal cooling.

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2. When investing in new technology think B.R.A.I.N (Benefits, Risks, Alternatives, Intuition and No go).

3. Disorganization in the toolroom does lead to disaster.

These are just three of the many tidbits attendees walked away with from last week's SPI Western Moldmakers Division Annual Mike Koebel Trade Fair in Pomona, California. This year marks the fair's first time offering a conference track prior to the fair's late afternoon exhibit and networking event.

Click HERE for more takeaways.

MoldMaking Technology teamed up with Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) Mold Making and Mold Design Division as well as the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) to select three of the top presentation topics from Amerimold 2014 in Novi, Michigan, to update  and then repeat to this west coast audience.

Lou Young from Livonia, Michigan's Linear Mold presented the dollars and sense of conformal cooling; Andrew Samrick of Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Paragon D&E shared lessons learned from the company's profiting and pitfalls of new technology investment; and Steve Shannon of ToolingDocs out of Ashland, Ohio, discussed the impact of a truly organized toolroom.

A room of 30 attendees filled the seats for the first-time conference, while the fair drew in attendance numbers it has not seen in years: 150 attendees. A successful afternoon and evening; definitely a foundation to build upon for the Fair's 25th anniversary next year!