MMT Blog
By: Cynthia Kustush 24. May 2019
Encoders, Flow Regulators and Stabilizing Cylinders Make Mold Spotting More Efficient, Precise and Cost-Effective
At Cavalier Tool and Manufacturing, the spotting press is as essential a tool as any machining center or other equipment. Here, a spotting press operator uses the Siemens touch-pad control to set up a 37,000-pound, reverse injected, hydraulic ejection single-cavity mold in the company’s Millutensil MIL-306 500-ton spotting press. Ergonomically designed, note that the press is floor-mounted for easy access from all sides, plus the upper platen can flip 100 degrees (standard), 150 degrees, and 180 degrees. Images courtesy of Cavalier Tool and Manufacturing.
An alternate view of Cavalier Tool’s Millutensil MIL-306 spotting press shows the ease with which the company can mount the cavity side of a mold onto the lower platen and then slide it into the press. This lower platen sliding feature gives workers better ergonomic access to both halves of the mold in the same work space. The platens each measure 138 inches by 94 inches.
Inside Cavalier Tool’s Millutensil MIL 306 spotting press, one notices not only the four corner guide posts or tie bars and the strategically located hydraulic cylinders that, together, ensure perfect parallelism when spotting a mold, but also some mood-setting disco lights (a little perk that came with the limited edition press). Guide posts in the Millutensil feature rotary encoders that monitor parallelism. If a mold were to cock as little as 0.004 inch, the press will stop, sound an alarm and identify the problem on the touch-pad control before any damage can occur. Operators can more quickly and easily resolve the issue.
Cavalier Tool & Manufacturing Ltd. of Windsor, Ontario, Canada builds more than 200 mid-to-large-size molds annually, the majority of which are complex in their design. Because of this, Cavalier believes using a spotting press to fit molds is a critical step in its moldmaking process, and the most efficient and cost-effective way to deliver precision, production-ready tools to its customers.
“If we built molds for something like a pizza tray or a pie plate that is very small, very flat and very easy to make, my dependency upon spotting would be very low,” Brian Bendig, president, says. “I could almost always build that kind of mold and never have to spot it. But Cavalier builds large, complex molds with deep cavities, angles and shutoffs, and we would have a heck of a time building them without spotting them.”
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There are many ways to attract qualified customers to your booth at Amerimold. Last year, Cheto offered customers the use of virtual reality goggles so they could see and “touch” the company’s CNC machining center that it was promoting during the show.
I have been blogging a lot lately about trade show strategies to assist Amerimold exhibitors with honing their marketing strategies to attract customers and boost leads collected. All the blogs published so far are archived on the moldmakingtechnology.com.
So, with Amerimold a mere 19 days away, I have high hopes that most exhibitors have been ensuring their Map Your Show exhibitor dashboard is well populated with facts and product information, logos are uploaded, contact information is available and that everyone has taken advantage of the marketing tools that are offered free to promote their participation and booth location. In addition, exhibitors’ booths have effective “bling” that tells show attendees what they do and what they are supplying.
Read MoreBy: Christina M. Fuges 23. May 2019
Breaking Down the Brand Barrier
Being a guest on the Kula Ring, a podcast made for manufacturing marketers with Carman Pirie and Jeff White, gave me and Manufacturing Alliance host Tony Demakis a chance to talk about the joint podcasts we have been doing for a year now.
If you are not yet familiar with podcasts, or more specifically The Manufacturing Alliance podcast, take listen today. A podcast is just another way we are reaching out to industry to get to know them on a deeper level and to help share their stories in a different way. Through our podcast we are using stories and personal connections to break down the brand barrier.
Read MoreBy: Heather Wintle 22. May 2019
Challenges, Opportunities and Solutions for Emerging Moldmaking Leaders
Many young moldmakers attended the AMBA’s 2019 annual conference to not only gain insights on industry trends and strategies, but to also discuss challenges faced by young professionals in the mold building industry during the Emerging Leaders special pre-conference session. Image courtesy of the American Mold Builders Association (AMBA).
Moldmakers know workforce development is one of the key challenges facing the industry today, which is why it was encouraging to see not only new faces, but young ones at the American Mold Builders Association (AMBA) annual conference in Itasca, Illinois. While these young faces were attending the conference to gain insights on industry trends and strategies, they had also been invited to join the AMBA’s Emerging Leaders special pre-conference session focusing on the challenges faced by young professionals in the mold building industry.
If you are not familiar with the AMBA’s Emerging Leaders, that is because the group is relatively new, and this meeting at the conference was the very first of its kind. Emerging Leaders is currently made up of over 40 members, all under the age of 40, across 30 AMBA member companies from across all areas of business. It aims to bring together “innovative, creative and dedicated young professionals” and focus on building relationships between them.
Read MoreBy: Christina M. Fuges 22. May 2019
Amerimold 2019 Update: What You Should Know about a Mold Builder’s Role in IMD Work
In-mold decorating (IMD) significantly compounds the many intricacies of the injection molding process by adding complexity and time to the build, qualify and run phases of the project. A mold shop plays a critical role in the success of any IMD project. This presentation will review the various challenges a tool shop must consider before and during IMD. For example, how will the location of the in-mold film determine the gating location? Which method for film placement and control is the most robust (static charge, vacuum or steel feature)? What kind of impact does the IMD process have on the price of the injection mold? Are there any general best practices for IMD mold design? Are any special steel surfacing/finishing techniques required about the film? Is there a limitation to the number of cavities in the production mold? Can process/molding simulation technologies be used to help ensure success?
Presenters:
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