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10 MoldMaking Technology —— MAY 2017 Profile Prodigy Mold & Tool in Haubstadt, Indiana, builds molds for "mission- critical" products such as gears and gear housings that enable items like steering mechanisms, automotive seat adjusters and more to function without fail, keeping consumers safe. Image courtesy of Prodigy Mold & Tool Inc. MMT: Prodigy specializes in "mission- critical" molds. Explain what that means. Darrin Schmitt, President: Mission-critical molds are those that are dependent on their quality and accuracy to deliver consistent parts that people depend on to ensure their safety. For example, molds we build for gears and gear housings are considered mission-critical because those gears and housings are used in a multitude of automotive products that, directly or indirectly, affect a driver's safe operation of a vehicle. Prodigy has been building these types of molds for more than 20 years; however, expertise in this area doesn't come overnight. It takes a real team effort to satisfy customers who expect perfection for these types of parts. Explain the differences between gears and gear housings, especially in the way you approach building molds for them. Prodigy: They are quite different from each other in that gears and worms are more precise, with emphasis not only on 88 East 1100 South Haubstadt, Indiana 812-753-3029 prodigymold.com • Founded in 1996. Darrin Schmitt is the president and owner. • Operations located in a 15,000-square-foot facility; employs 20. • Designs and builds mainly one- to eight-cavity plastic injection molds as heavy as 400 tons, with a specialty in highly engineered, high-production molds for gears, gear housings, safety restraints and medical devices. • Lead time averages 11 weeks. • Member of the American Mold Builders Association. • Serves primarily the automotive industry, as well as customers in the medical, packaging, consumer goods, electronics and telecommunications industries. A Conversation with … Prodigy Mold & Tool Inc. consumer safety but comfort as well. They are used for many types of functions, including adjusting seats, steering mecha- nisms, throttle bodies, mirrors and doors in the automotive industry, as well as various actions needed in medical prod- ucts, outdoor equipment and so on. Our customers expect all critical-part geometry to be within 0.02 mm. This means steel needs to be machined within 0.0002 to 0.0003 inch to make them "capable." Gear housings are just as precise as gears and worms in the end, but require a multitude of adjustments and "grooming" (machining) because of the unsymmetrical and unusually thick sections of plastic material needed to secure the inter- nal gear/worm components when assembled. These thick sections are typically extra warpage producers, so it's kind of like machining a football shape in order to end up with a basketball. We intentionally leave steel "steel safe" and gradu- ally sneak up on it. Every time we remove steel, grooming it affects the shrink/warp differently than the previous time. It's challenging and fun stuff. Because of the complex nature of this work, getting approval on a housing tool is gener- ally at least a year-long process. It's not uncommon for us to go through several rounds, sometimes as many as eight, of grooming, then re-sampling the housing tool at the cus- tomer's facility, inspecting the parts, and then shipping the mold back to us to repeat that process until it's exactly what the customer requires, which is 100 percent part-to-print compliance.