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Great Tips from This Issue 5 TRICKS OF THE TRADE Contents 4 MoldMaking Technology January 2015 Features 22 Economic Forecast Coming Back Strong Investment in machining centers, injection molding machines and complete molds is projected to increase significantly in 2015. Our latest capital spending survey reveals the trends leading to this upswing. 26 Software The Will and the Way to Automate Mold Design Persistence and the right technology enabled this automotive toolmaker to give programmers a head start on new projects and dramatically reduce calculation times. 32 Surface Treatment Protect Your Tooling Investment Lower your VOC footprint, upgrade manufacturing operations and improve the surface quality of your final products with water-based mold release and cleaning. 36 Global Competition Avoiding the Pitfalls of Overseas Tooling The keys to managing offshore tooling are solid communication, an onshore team of mold experts, part samples before mold shipment and onshore molding. Departments 6 From the Editor: Fresh Perspective 6 W hat's New on MMT Online 8 E ditorial Advisory Board (EAB) Insight: Working on the Workforce 10 Your Business: Life Insurance 12 Pr ofile: Eifel Mold & Engineering 14 C ase Study: Machining—Adopting a Production Mindset 20 Pellet 2 Part (P2P): Plastic Injection Molding Starts with the Pellet 40 Product Focus: Machining 44 By The Numbers: MoldMaking Business Index 46 End Market Report: Aerospace and Automotive 47 MoldMaking Marketplace 47 Ad Index 48 TIP: Mold Repair—Transition to In-House Welding ON THE COVER Image courtesy of John Caccese. Ken Zytner of Unique Tool & Gauge works on a new mold design. Rather than starting from scratch, this process begins with a fully-assembled mold base, complete with all manifolds, fittings, electrical boxes, plugs and other components arranged according to customer-specific design requirements. These "base templates" also resize themselves to accommodate dif- ferent tool sizes or design changes at the click of a button. Getting there required the persistence to make the most of tools in the shop's Cimatron CAD/CAM software. See related story on page 26. Images above courtesy of (left to right) KraussMaffei, ChemTrends and Industrial Molds Group. 1. Solid Setups Although pallet-changing capability delivered an immediate beneft to this moldmaker, the addition of a separate auxiliary product, an FCS modular clamping system, pushed time savings even further. PG. 14. 2. Survey Says Moldmakers are expected to spend nearly $500 mil- lion on machining centers, grinders and EDMs this year. That's an increase of 32 percent over 2014, and it's nearly 10 times the average amount spent an- nually from 2008 to 2012. PG. 22. 3. Go H2O A beneft of water-based release products is that the residue left on the mold is easier to remove than that left by solvent-based products. No aggressive, corrosive or harmful operations are required to clean the mold. PG. 32. 4. Communicate Upstream Moldmakers can mitigate many of the risks of overseas tool sourcing by addressing design for manufacturability with the customer at the quoting stage. PG. 36. 5. Cost Compare Base your in-house laser welding selection on the system's ROI and overall value by comparing prices against each system's capa- bilities. Another determin- ing factor often is service. PG. 48. January 2015 Volume 18 / Number 1 48 32 VIDEO ACCESS 20