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Injection mold design is in the midst of a second computer revolution. The first one occurred when designers exchanged their drafting tables for CAD workstations. Now, mold designers are again [...]

All-electric injection presses carry higher price tags, but molders who use them don't seem to care. They say price pales in comparison to the valuable molding advantages they get with [...]

An updated Scorim process oscillates the melt back and forth inside the mold with more flexibility and fewer machinery modifications. Here's a look at how the 'new' Scorim can enhance [...]

A new generation of process-control systems interpret results of injection molding simulation as the starting point for machine settings and control setpoints. Efforts to make injection machine set-up and control [...]

K'98 showed off a wide range of technologies that cut costs by consolidating process steps. One of the most unusual was in-line compounding and molding of filled PP with a [...]

Multi-color or multi-material molding isn't just for captive molders anymore. Applications are multiplying far beyond keycaps and taillights, making investment in specialty machines thinkable for custom shops. * Looking for [...]

This nasty computer defect will likely pop up somewhere in your plant, but you can keep it from spoiling your New Year's Day 2000. The key is to hunt out [...]

Will chip-carrying cards become a booming business for injection molders? If the market's explosive growth continues, the answer could be a profitable 'yes' for those with the right mix of [...]

Sure, you can find tooling bargains overseas. But the savings can vanish if you don't keep a firm hold on quality and project management. Here are some proven strategies for [...]

Processors shopping for MRP II and related manufacturing-management software systems have a surfeit of choices on their hands. With more than 100 systems out there, most of which have dozens [...]

Packing the most machine into the least amount of space has spurred rapid proliferation of two-platen injection machines. Here's a complete guide to what's available now. If you run big [...]

LOW-COST & COMPACT TOGGLE MACHINES Among the new toggle-clamp machines, HPM Corp., Mt. Gilead, Ohio, rolled out its aggressively priced Universal Series in 60 to 560 tons. Assembled partly in [...]

'Windows' will be everywhere you look, from new CIM systems to control software. For better or worse, it's becoming a 'Windows' world, and process-control and monitoring products for plastics equipment [...]

This year's show will be the place to kick the tires on large two-platen machines. At least five suppliers will exhibit machines over 1000 tons. If you're a molder who [...]

Time is money. Opportunities to save some of both are often overlooked. Try out these tips from experts who spend their time trimming the fat off molding cycles. What molder [...]

If you didn't make it to Birmingham, England in November, our editors scoured the show floor for new hardware and software for injection, extrusion, blow molding, and thermoforming. Interplas 96 [...]

How many hours do you spend looking for material data sheets or machinery specifications? You start by rifling through the file cabinets - or the piles on your desk. Even [...]

What is the best source of nitrogen for gas-assist injection molding? According to recent cost comparisons from two leading nitrogen suppliers, on-site nitrogen generation often beats compressed-gas cylinders and liquid [...]

BMW and Mercedes-Benz of Germany recently opened production facilities in the Southern U.S., and they've been followed by parts suppliers with sophisticated injection molding capabilities. Here's a look at two [...]

Two-platen injection machines take up less floor space without sacrificing performance. Tiebarless models make mold changing and robot mounting easier. Does that means these alternative clamp styles are poised to [...]

Maintenance software won't do the dirty work, but it can help you organize maintenance tasks and even predict when machines will need repairs. No software will replace the elbow grease [...]

No single solution will solve all your worker-training woes. But a good place to start is with an in-plant program that addresses your most immediate concern - ensuring competency on [...]

The injection molding offerings at K'95 suggest that everyday presses are taking on a new look - or several new looks. If the show was any indication, tiebarless, two-platen, and [...]

With loads of off-the-shelf PC software available for tasks as varied as tool design, production scheduling, maintenance management, and quality assurance, it's as if you can run the whole plant [...]

Initial hardware cost, installation cost, flexibility, and expandability weigh in its favor. But is it too good to be true? Just three years ago, buyers of multi-station materials conveying and [...]

Ask molders why 3-D CAD is a good investment, and they'll tell you it helps build tools faster, it's essential to getting some customers' business, and it may cost less [...]

You don't have to spend a lot of money to speed mold changes. In fact, some of the most important aspects of QMC don't cost anything at all. A decade [...]

One would never have guessed it was so soon after NPE, judging by the amount of news for injection molders at the recent Western Plastics Exposition in Long Beach, Calif. [...]

A resin supplier's extensive research into gas injection has produced the first practical guide to part and tool design, as well as molding and control techniques. By now, most molders [...]

Diagnosing your injection molding process can be made easier with compact machine data recorders. They can also help you evaluate a machine's capability to produce quality parts. When your injection [...]

Like it or not, making blown film with postconsumer reclaim is a skill you may have to learn. Who in their right mind really wants to put post-consumer reclaim (PCR) [...]

Our first two-time CIM Award winner expanded its CIM network by linking three plants and implementing a real-time quality system. When Security Plastics Inc. won its first CIM Leaders Award [...]

They're not just for thermoforming and composites anymore. Lower-cost CNC routers are opening an easy route to automation for blow and injection molders, too. Picture a high-tech plastics-processing plant. Computers [...]

Our pre-NPE look at extrusion may have turned up most of the major equipment developments, but suppliers still had some surprises up their sleeves when the show opened its doors. [...]

With so many more twin-screw machines and suppliers to choose from nowadays, buyers are benefiting from a much broader price range than in the past. But price is never the [...]

New ways of extrusion blow molding APET, in-mold orientation of injection molded parts, and continuous forming of programmable shapes in-line with extrusion were just some of the new concepts introduced [...]

Post-consumer recycling takes a novel approach to melt filtration. Meanwhile, quieter and more compact granulators are replacing the behemoths of the past. A mix of post-consumer recycling (PCR) and in-plant [...]

If you're looking for more productivity, increased flexibility, or better control, you'll find it at NPE. As always, the name of the game in extrusion is getting both more and [...]

National Manufacturing Week, held recently in Chicago, brought together three shows that would have filled the wish list of anyone wanting the latest computer hardware and software for automating design, [...]

Modular or 'stackable' coex dies may offer advantages to forward-thinking processors who want the flexibility to run tomorrow's products. Keeping in step with uncertain film markets can be tough, given [...]

No longer just for making prototype parts, 'rapid manufacturing' systems offer promising shortcuts to production tooling Imagine if moldmaking were this easy: First, your part concept takes shape on a [...]

With 1274 exhibitors from 30 nations, Interplas '93 in Birmingham, England, remains one of the world's premiere plastics exhibitions and was the largest onelast year. As far as news goes, [...]

A new approach to maintaining hydraulic oil throws conventional thinking out the window. But it's working in one major molding operation. If your plant has regular procedures for maintaining hydraulic [...]

In putting together its new CIM system, MedTech designed a careful selection process and empowered its workers. Over the past year, the MedTech Group of South Plainfield, N.J., has assembled [...]

Wider and thinner films, faster line speeds, more frequent product changes, and ever-stricter quality requirements are forcing evolutionary changes in thickness gauging technology. As film production environments evolve, so do [...]

What's needed depends entirely on the type of resin, where it comes from, and what you want it to do in its next life. In the recycling trade, where brutal [...]

The SPE's Annual Technical Conference, held recently in New Orleans, offered both an exhibition and a technical program that required an unprecedented three volumes to bind the 3500-page proceedings. Presented [...]

Process modeling software can help you or your machinery/material suppliers optimize your process. Trying out new extrusion equipment or materials too often boils down to trial-and-error processing, where even years [...]

A new wave is sweeping into computer-integrated manufacturing. It's already evident in some of the commercially available computer hardware and software you use for process control and information management. But [...]