An Addition to the Family

MoldMaking Technology was reunited with its sister publication Time-Compression Technologies this past October when it was acquired by Gardner Publications, Inc. from Communication Technologies, Inc. where they were both previously published.

Time-Compression Technologies is a magazine designed for the rapid product development industry that highlights the trends and technologies for reducing a product’s time-to-market while improving its quality and managing its costs. Be sure to check out its Web site [www.timecompress.com] to get a feel for what this publication has to offer.

A portion of Time-Compression Technologies’ coverage includes the product, equipment, services and strategies involving rapid prototyping, rapid tooling and rapid manufacturing—all of which we’ve been covering in MoldMaking Technology since the magazine’s inception back in 1998.

The link between MoldMaking Technology and Time-Compression Technologies is strong. Rapid product development is an area for mold manufacturers to explore so as to better understand how and why it applies to moldmaking facilities and their operations now and in the future.

Some industry folk forecast a growing trend toward mold shops becoming hybrid shops that use additive fabrication technologies to make customized parts yet still use traditional moldmaking processes and technologies for production parts. Just one example of the new business opportunities available … if you stay informed.

This ties in nicely with our 2009 editorial theme for MMT: New Business Opportunities. With this focus in mind, we will examine a variety of new and exciting ways that today’s mold manufacturers can compete—such as investing in RP/RT/RM technologies (services or equipment) as a value-add for your customers and/or a method for opening up your shop to new avenues for work.
We are also continuing our bi-monthly Additive Fabrication column so we can bring you the current technologies and trends in rapid product development as they relate to mold manufacturing.

This month’s column features a worldwide review and analysis of additive fabrication by Terry Wohlers. It is an executive summary of the annual Wohlers Report that provides quantitative and qualitative analysis on the additive fabrication industry worldwide.

This month MMT and TCT are headed to Euromold in Frankfurt, Germany (www.euromold.com)—a world fair for moldmaking and tooling, design and application development—where rapid product development is the focus. So be sure to check out our post-show report next month in MMT and the MMT Insider.

With Gardner’s continuing growth in publishing magazines and creating Web sites for industrial markets, MMT and TCT are back under the same roof, providing you with more resources for staying informed.