MoldMaking Technology

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MoldMaking Technology

The only monthly trade publication focused entirely on mold design, build, repair and management.

MoldMaking Technology addresses the complete lifecycle of the manufacture and maintenance of a mold—from design to first shot—by providing solutions and strategies to moldmaking professionals charged with designing, building and repairing molds. MMT utilizes an Editorial Advisory Board to help guide the direction of the brand. This board is made up of authorities with expertise within their respec

tive business, industry, technology and profession. Their role is to advise on timely issues, trends and advances in the field, offer editorial thought and direction, review and comment on specific articles and generally act as a sounding board and a conscience for the publication. MMT remains committed to bringing our audience what’s new and what works in mold manufacturing by focusing on the needs of today’s mold builders. Anything from successful business practices to manufacturing strategies can be found in a technology article, application story, shop profile or tip of the month that applies to today’s mold shop owners, tool and mold manufacturers, injection molders and OEMs.

09/10/2026

The Moldmaking Index held in expansion for an eighth consecutive month, registering 54.7 in August — though the reading came with some notable softness beneath the surface.

Employment was the month's clearest weak point, falling nearly six points to 48.7 and dipping below the break-even line for the first time in the current expansion. New orders and production also cooled, though both remained comfortably in growth territory.

Offsetting factors included:

- Backlog and supplier deliveries each improved by more than a point
- Material prices eased again to 79.7, extending a multi-month slowing of input-cost pressure
- On a three-month average basis, five of six components sit in expansion, with all six exceeding their year-ago readings

Despite the softer current reading, forward-looking sentiment strengthened. The Future Business Index rose to a three-month average of 66.7, keeping moldmaker optimism firmly in positive territory.

Exports remained the lone sub-50 component, holding near 47.0.

Full analysis and methodology are available at GardnerIntelligence.com. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/moldmaking-index-eases-in-august-but-maintains-expansion-streak

09/07/2026

The question most mold shop leaders are asking about AI is the wrong one. "Are we ready?" assumes you have the luxury of waiting. You don't.

At the AMBA Conference, three experts in operations, workforce, and strategy reached a clear consensus: stop asking if you're ready and start asking what problem you want to solve first.

Three takeaways worth noting:

- By 2030, the last of the baby boomers turns 65. That's not knowledge retiring to a competitor — it's knowledge leaving the industry entirely. AI is uniquely suited to capturing what experienced workers know in ways SOPs never realistically could.

- The starting point isn't picking a vendor. It's identifying one pain point, assigning one person to own it, and moving experimentation to an enterprise account. Free platforms are not safe for business use.

- AI won't replace the physical work or engineering judgment on a shop floor. But the tribal knowledge walking out your door is a problem that's here right now.

Read the full panel discussion to learn more. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/your-people-are-already-using-ai-now-what

09/04/2026

Some molds get numbers. This one got a name.

When a small moldmaking shop started running multiple concurrent builds, the team stopped using numerical identifiers and started naming their molds like colleagues. One, christened "Geoff" by lead moldmaker Ray, became the stuff of shop legend.

What made Geoff infamous was equal parts ingenuity and candor about human error. When gate nozzle seals were burned oversized, the fix was counterintuitive: make the mistake bigger, then engineer a press-fit ring solution that held perfectly and became a repeatable repair method. Years later, the phrase "let's Geoff it" entered the shop's working vocabulary.

The story also captures something less technical — a lead moldmaker filming hydraulic cycles to show his kids, months of minor tweaking in pursuit of a tolerance that was already met, and a team spending more hours with a mold than with their own families.

Manufacturing's most instructive moments often live in stories like this one. Read the full account of how Geoff came to be — and why he was never forgotten. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/shop-talk-adventures-with-geoff

09/03/2026

Engineering programs teach geometry, stress analysis, and material science. They do not teach you what to do when you are wrong.

That gap is what one mold design engineer is working to close through a structured training program built around a deceptively simple principle: never bring a problem without bringing solutions.

The approach centers on a problem-solution matrix. Before presenting any mistake or design challenge to a boss, customer, or colleague, engineers identify three possible solutions, select the strongest, and present all three alongside their recommendation. The result is a conversation about solutions rather than a problem handed off for someone else to solve.

The program also trains engineers to "be wrong early" — to surface uncertainty in the design review, not in the steel. Engineers who hide uncertainty to avoid looking foolish are the ones whose mistakes show up in the tool.

Rounding out the curriculum: simulated angry customer emails, failure mode and effects analyses, and weekly teardowns of cheap injection-molded parts to develop the habit of seeing manufacturability problems before they become costly ones.

The full piece is worth reading for any engineer or manager who has learned these lessons the hard way. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/engineering-judgment-what-nobody-teaches-you

08/31/2026

August's most-read content reflects an industry examining how it operates, not just what it builds.

Readers gravitated toward shops navigating the space between prototype and production, additive manufacturing moving past proof-of-concept, and the often-overlooked misalignment between sales teams and the manufacturing floor.

The top themes from MoldMaking Technology's August readership:

- Bridging prototype and production with combined metal, resin, and CNC workflows
- Scaling additive manufacturing beyond the test-bed phase
- The commercial blind spot when sales doesn't speak manufacturing
- Reducing EDM dependency through optimized roughing and electrode strategies
- Evaluating 3D-printed cutting tools for productivity and tooling decisions
- Retaining institutional knowledge to reduce risk and accelerate technician development
- AI-integrated ERP and process mapping for shop-floor precision

A rebound in the Moldmaking Index — now in seven consecutive months of expansion — rounded out a month defined by the balance between new technology and operational discipline.

The full August top 10 is linked below. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/augusts-most-read-on-moldmaking-technology

08/27/2026

Traditional thermal pins couldn't reach a critical mold area — and the result was hot spots, warped parts, and slow cycle times.

That was the challenge facing K-Rain, a manufacturer of irrigation products, until a three-way collaboration between mold builder Zero Tolerance LLC, metal printer manufacturer Xact Metal, and simulation specialist Reaction Plastics Solutions produced a measurable solution: 3D-printed conformal cooling inserts made from Corrax stainless steel.

The inserts replaced a conventional core cap and routed cooling channels through a thin cross-section where traditional methods had failed. Cycle time dropped from 54 to 44 seconds — an 18–20% improvement — while warpage and sink marks were eliminated.

A post-build simulation validated the results, showing dramatically more uniform temperature distribution and confirming the cooling circuit's hydraulic performance. As simulation engineer Richard Evans noted, the virtual and real-world data "lined up remarkably well."

Key lessons from the project:
- Conformal cooling requires simulation validation, not just good design intent
- Additive manufacturing complements machining — it does not replace it
- Material selection and water chemistry are as critical as channel geometry

Full details are linked below. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/how-metal-am-cut-mold-cycle-time-by-20

08/20/2026

In many mold shops, the most consequential gap isn't on the shop floor — it's between sales and manufacturing.

When sales teams can't accurately translate technical capability into customer-relevant outcomes, differentiation drifts toward features, and features compete on price. Great manufacturing does not automatically produce commercial advantage.

The disconnect rarely announces itself. Quotes are built under time pressure. Assumptions fill gaps where manufacturing knowledge should reside. Common failures include:

- Generic capability claims that don't address customer risk
- Complexity that isn't priced because it isn't recognized
- Delivery commitments that trigger internal fire drills
- Winning the wrong work while losing programs that fit

The root cause is structural. Sales is measured on responsiveness and revenue. Manufacturing is measured on feasibility, stability and ex*****on. Without a shared operational language, both sides perform their roles well — just not in alignment.

Effective sales enablement in this context means building enough manufacturing fluency in commercial teams to qualify opportunities accurately, communicate value credibly and sell responsibly.

The full piece examines how this misalignment develops and what closing it requires. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/when-sales-doesnt-speak-manufacturing-the-commercial-blind-spot-hurting-injection-mold-builders-part-1

08/19/2026

Metal additive manufacturing is no longer experimental in moldmaking — and its influence is now extending into cutting tool design.

Moldmakers have long understood the value of additive for conformal-cooled inserts: controlling heat and flow where conventional machining cannot reach. The cutting tool industry has arrived at the same conclusion. Additive-produced end mills, boring tools, and deep-hole drilling tools now use engineered internal coolant passages, reduced mass, and application-specific geometries to address the same constraints — heat, chip evacuation, and geometric complexity — that moldmakers already manage on the mold side.

The business case is direct:

- Coolant optimization can extend tool life by 30% or more
- Mass reduction improves performance in long-reach applications
- Improved rigidity and damping reduce machining instability
- Better chip control lowers risk of production bottlenecks

Additive should not be evaluated solely as a method for conformal cooling. Shops that assess it across the full moldmaking workflow — including cutting tool selection — will be better positioned to reduce lead times, increase productivity, and protect profitability.

Read the full analysis to understand where these two manufacturing disciplines converge. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/why-moldmakers-should-evaluate-3d-printed-cutting-tools

08/17/2026

Atomic Industries has moved from proving its technology to scaling it.

The Michigan-based startup builds injection molds using autonomous design software, then runs those molds in-house to produce parts. Every tool ships with sensors embedded in the cavities — tracking temperature, pressure, ejector pin force and plastic flow — streaming data back in real time.

That closed loop is the distinction. Where a traditional tool shop receives feedback along the lines of "your mold's good," Atomic gets actual process data. One observation: a 5°C variation in a heater band zone caused parts to come out 0.005 inch smaller every time it spiked. The result is a dynamic feedback loop that tool builders and molders haven't had access to before.

The production numbers are no longer theoretical:
- 53-second cycle times on a project competitors quoted at 70 seconds
- 12-week average reduction in time to launch new parts
- Planned expansion into high-pressure die casting, where scrap rates can reach 50%

The question has shifted from whether the technology works to how fast it will scale.

Read the full report from Editorial Director Christina Fuges at Moldmaking Technology. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/what-comes-after-the-test-bed-

08/13/2026

Custom moldmaking resists standardization by definition. No two jobs are alike — so how do you build a process that holds?

NyproMold's approach centers on individual process mapping rather than a single lean playbook. The goal, as Lead Manufacturing Engineer Mark Keller describes it, is minimizing time between departments while keeping each one adaptable enough to handle whatever comes next.

That logic extends across several operational layers:

- A customized Epicor MES system tracks more than 10,000 custom components simultaneously, each assigned a start-by and do-by date
- AI is beginning to influence reporting and quoting — though not yet shop-floor programming
- Unattended overnight run time is expanding, a culture shift as much as a technical one
- Workforce development runs through partnerships with seven vocational schools, with structured 30-60-90-180-day onboarding for new hires

The discipline behind precision moldmaking — from high-cavity packaging tools to dissolvable medical components — depends on systems built to handle complexity before it becomes chaos.

The full MMT Chat with Mark Keller is worth the time. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/mmt-chat-mapping-process-growing-talent-at-nypromold

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