Throwback Thursday: The Next Level of Mold Optimization
New technology gives everyone the ability to gain significant advantage, which pays off in faster builds, better performance, lower costs, and less-risk molds long into the future.
Mark Scanlan of PFA uncovers the true advantage of implementing new technology, as it applies to mold components, specifically modular mold technology.
Scanlan discusses how the primary barrier to using new technology is not limited by a lack of desire to use it, but more often by our limited time or commitment to understand it. Due to curiosity if nothing else, most technology-directed people will take some amount of time to briefly determine How does it work?, when they see something new, but often do not take the time to consider all of the technology’s true advantages: How does it make other areas easier? More cost-effective? Lower costs? Basically, what makes it more lean than what I’m currently doing or planning to do? Or, why is this product for sale? What does the product provide as a design advantage? Build advantage? Process advantage? Maintenance advantage?
Armed with the understanding of a technology’s true advantages, the technology can be tried in appropriate applications and eventually the user adapts these to become another part of his art supplies for use on all appropriate future projects.
The term modular by its very nature implies such advantages and capability to optimize the design, mold build and maintenance processes, as does the term components. As typical screws and fasteners cover the range of common to specialized, so now does the world of mold components. In addition; however, mold components can be so much more.
Typical and specialty pins are available as “quickly available” or “off-the-shelf” items. More complex component systems are similar, although one must think of them as a single system component and not a custom product or complex arrangement.
Such system components demonstrate the next level of mold optimization. To illustrate and understand the true advantage approach to mold system components, consider the problem of moveable cores and mold wiring, and how the modular concept of more typical components also can be applied to systems. For the full story click here.
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