Popular Posts: January 2020

Happy New Year, moldmakers! Now that the holidays are over, the new year’s begun and winter is here (brr!), it’s time to look back and reflect on the five most popular blog posts from the past month. These are the most viewed articles from readers like you, so don’t miss out on what everyone else is reading. Take a look and learn some more about what’s going on in the moldmaking community.

How to Eliminate Chatter

Surface finish problems can be profit killers for today’s mold manufacturer. One of the most common causes is chatter created by vibration in the CNC machine tool cutting process. This can lead to higher costs, delayed deliveries and even lost orders due to poor quality. In addition, vibration can cause uneven tool wear, resulting in poor surface finish, geometry inconsistencies and reduced tool life.

Chatter is caused by the inherent natural frequency of the cutting tool. It can be triggered by many process conditions: toolholding, cutter tooling, part fixturing and machine conditions. Typically operators try to combat chatter by combining multiple solutions, but some of these may be impossible to implement due to part geometries or machine limitations. Fortunately, there is new technology available today that can eliminate chatter from your cutting processes.

Read the complete article here.

Seven Key Advantages of Hot Runner Systems

The runnerless molding of thermoplastics is no longer new - it's been a known technology for more than 50 years, with commercial systems being available for more than 40 years. However, the growth of hot runner system sales during the last decade has been exceptional. This is a direct reflection of improved hot runner technology and of other improvements in heat control and melt-flow analysis. This growth also is a reflection of a better understanding and acceptance of the benefits of hot runner systems and their application by moldmaking companies and OEMs alike.

Read the complete article here.

How to Become a Better Informed Mold Purchaser

Mold buyers have a unique job in which they can either set up a manufacturing process for success or cause the company to lose profitability. A lack of understanding exactly what they are purchasing hurts productivity. Purchasing only on price and delivery is not the proper matrix for evaluating a mold. Putting part size, the number of slide actions, steel type and manufacturing location into a spreadsheet does not calculate the best mold price. The calculation is much more complex than that.

Here are six questions every purchasing manager should answer to improve his or her buying skills and create more value for the company.

Read the complete article here.

How to Improve the Flow of Repair and Engineering Changes

“I AM A RHINOCEROS! I HAVE A DAMN-THE-TORPEDOES SPIRIT! I AM FULL OF ENERGY, AND I CAN’T WAIT TO GET UP IN THE MORNING AND START CHARGING!”

It is this exact attitude that pushes Phipps to wake up every morning with the answers to the torpedoes from the previous day, polish his horn and head into the mold jungle to eagerly tackle the obstacles of the day ahead. He has learned the hard way that the world will always have obstacles that force you to change, but if you charge ahead with audacity and learn from your past torpedoes, you will begin to more easily navigate the future. “It takes an eyes-wide-open approach to life and two-inch-thick skin to survive this mold jungle. That’s rhinoceros training,” Phipps says.

Read the complete article here.

Steel Choice Matters for Corrosion Resistance

Tool steel resists condensation, and waterline corrosion, which is especially important as the use of corrosive materials like fire-retardant additives, PVC and aminoplast increases. However, with every positive there is typically a negative. For example, corrosion-resistant plastic injection mold steels require additional machining time that increases wear, and more complex mold bases cause 60 percent of the steel to become chips. To address these challenges, steel suppliers continue to develop specialty steels to combat the extremely corrosive injection molding environment while improving steel’s machinability and stability.

Read the complete article here.