Published 12/6/2010

South Coast Mold: Energy, Efficiency Add up to Success

South Coast Mold, Inc. (Irvine, CA) is not your typical mold shop, but a small sub-set (niche) of the broad injection mold business since its specialty is castings.

Basics
FAQ

Sherry Baranek

Contributing Writer, MoldMaking Technology magazine

Casting Advantages

According to South Coast Mold President Paul Novak, investment casting has a number of advantages. “Miniature and complex geometry can be formed using this precision process,” he explains. “All fine detail can be included such as undercuts, serrations, threads and thin walls. Even twisted cores can be included. Also, a superior surface finish is achieved when compared to other processes such as forging or sand casting.

“Another advantage to investment casting is that virtually any alloy can be cast, even the so-called tough machining alloys,” he continues. “Stainless steel, inconel and titanium—among other alloys—can all be cast successfully. And these alloys will retain the part detail throughout the process. With some complex alloy parts, sometimes investment casting is the only way to go.”

Excelling in Energy Solutions

According to Novak, three major events propelled him to develop an energy-saving strategy back in late 2000 and early 2001. “California had a severe electricity crisis with erratic supply, regional rolling blackouts and price spikes,” he recalls. “In 2005, we moved and doubled our manufacturing size—which also doubled our electric bill. Then when the global oil and energy crisis came along in 2007 and 2008, costs increased dramatically and we realized we could no longer take electricity for granted.”

Novak sought assistance from ENERGY STAR—a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy that helps companies save money and protect the environment through energy-efficient products and practices. The company’s website provides tools and resources that are free. Novak registered as an ENERGY STAR small business participant and used programs from the company’s website like “Putting Energy into Profits: ENERGY STAR Guide for Small Business” and “Energy Management Basics for Small and Medium-sized Manufacturers.”

Novak also counted on Southern California Edison (SCE) for a number of tools and resources to streamline energy-efficient practices. “The monthly billings itemize energy usage and compare current usage with the previous month and previous year,” Novak explains. “SCE’s website offered details on energy usage, available rebates and incentives, and success stories. The energy usage history goes as far back as the start of the account—which makes analysis easy. The rebates and incentives can be a real bonus for equipment upgrades.

“As a roadmap for our program we used both ENERGY STAR 'Guidelines for Energy Management Overview' and SCE’s Online Business Energy Survey,” Novak continues. “Four sectors were selected for energy management: lighting, office, HVAC and CNC equipment. Lighting is very important because of the precision products made at the shop. Offices are fully equipped with CAD/CAM workstations and support equipment. HVAC is needed in both the office and the shop. Lastly, the largest energy draw is the shop equipment, which sometimes runs 24-hours-per-day.”

Once South Coast’s plan was in place, the company installed all-new, energy-efficient indoor lighting and reduced the number of outdoor lighting fixtures by 20 percent. Additionally, new HVAC units were installed that were qualified by ENERGY STAR. Novak used 'A Guide to Energy-Efficient Heating and Cooling' from the website to implement maintenance procedures. Other HVAC management steps included installing programmable thermostats, adding insulation to eliminate HVAC waste, and installing industrial turbine ventilators in the shop to use instead of air conditioning in mild weather.

The company’s machining equipment required special attention since this is the largest electricity consumption area. First, the company replaced an old piston-style compressor with a new, efficient rotary-screw model, which eliminated the severe usage spikes they had experienced. The CNC machines now have automatic power-down switches to shut off while unattended. The CNC tools power down and the new compressor create “lights-out” manufacturing to avoid energy waste. All equipment is shut down at the end of a production run.

This coordinated, well-planned effort has resulted in more than $1,600 annually in energy costs for the operation of his business, Novak notes.

Employee Advantage

South Coast Mold is fortunate to have a dedicated team of employees. “The average employee has more than 20 years of industry experience,” Novak points out, “and the average tenure at South Coast Mold is 10 years. This success is a result of management and employees working together.

“All of the toolmakers design and build their dies from scratch,” Novak continues. “Each toolmaker has the knowledge and experience in CAD solid modeling. They design a CAD model of the part and then a mold base around the part. All working components are designed. Then, the toolmakers create CNC toolpaths to cut the mold cavity. With precision cutting, final mold assembly and polishing is minimal. The toolmaker will then run a test injection to insure proper operation of the die.”

Novak adds that the company’s shift times are flexible to accommodate employees’ schedules for things such as commuting, family obligations or even exercise routines. “In the shop, while most employees manage their own projects, the atmosphere is one of teamwork and knowledge sharing,” he says. “This is especially important in toolmaking where every tool is different and poses different challenges. All employees bring differing industry knowledge and experience—putting that together creates synergy for difficult problem solving.”

Meeting Demand

Novak’s future plans for South Coast Mold include keeping a close eye on industry demand for larger, more complex parts. “This demand means that the dies producing those parts will be considerably larger,” he explains. “The challenges and opportunities for South Coast Mold will be meeting that demand for big dies. Any new equipment will be for CNC machining centers with increased travels.

“Larger dies also means that there is much more cavity to be cut—and with leadtimes decreasing—there will be increased pressure on already tight delivery schedules,” Novak continues. “To share the cutting load, we already have some high-speed CNC machining centers. Any future equipment purchases also will be for high-speed machines. All told, larger, high-speed equipment will increase shop capacity to meet the industry demand.”

Investment Casting and the Electronics Industry

According to South Coast Mold President Paul Novak, the history of lost-wax casting can be traced back several thousand years ago to civilizations in Egypt, Greece, India, China and Central America. “In the modern era, lost-wax casting was widely used in jewelry and dental inserts,” Novak says. “This lost wax technology evolved into investment casting to include complex parts for industry. Today, investment casting parts are standard in aerospace, petroleum, automotive, firearms, medical and other commercial industries.”

The history of investment casting in the electronics industry started out small and grew into complex components. “Custom heat sinks were the first widely used application in electronics,” Novak states. “These heat sinks were mostly for specialized applications. The industry then evolved to include much more complex parts for avionics chassis’ and electronic guidance systems. These parts are always a big challenge because of weight, fine detail and thin walls.

“The challenges also are in the tooling of these parts because of numerous undercuts,” Novak continues. “The end result of a finished tool can resemble a puzzle with hundreds of pieces. In the end, investment casting is well suited for the aviation electronics industry for the structural integrity versus weight and for the part detail that virtually eliminates secondary operations.”

The Process of Investment Casting

Investment casting is a metal forming process to create detail and complex alloy shapes. “The process starts with a master pattern, usually wax, but can be from other materials such as foam, plastic, resin, clay, etc.,” South Coast Mold President Paul Novak states. “When several patterns are made, the patterns are assembled onto a cluster or tree. The wax tree allows for the production of several parts simultaneously. Then the tree is dipped, or invested, into ceramic slurry and stucco. This investment process is repeated several times to build up a ceramic refractory coat on the parts. Next, the wax patterns are burned out of the tree by an autoclave. The remainder is a hollow ceramic tree. Next, molten alloy is poured into the tree to create the parts. Finally, the tree is removed, parts are cut and finished, and the finished alloy product is made. This finished part is an exact net shape of the original master.”

Moldmaking for Precision Investment Castings

According to Paul Novak, President of South Coast Mold, the mold design and build process for precision investment casting products produces complex and contoured cavities. “Not much time is spent with the mold base, rather, all of the effort is focused on the complex cavity and parting lines,” he elaborates. “It’s more interesting for the typical moldmaker because from the start of a project, a moldmaker is cutting a cavity and can therefore see instant progress of the mold. In other types of molds, there’s a lot of upfront work in mold base preparation before any cavity is cut. Also, this work is challenging because of the considerable amount of contour to cut—so much so that many CNC programs run all night. This interesting, challenging and rewarding work has led moldmakers to this discipline from other moldmaking areas.”