Your 2018 Investment Guide

It’s no surprise in a year hosting three major manufacturing trade events—NPE, Amerimold and IMTS—that many of you mold shop owners, engineers, designers, builders, machine operators and toolroom personnel are ready to investigate and invest in new technology to address some of your most pressing challenges.

On top of that, our travels and conversations so far this year have brought to light a variety of mold shop technology needs, including more powerful design and toolpath software; CAD/CAM systems capable of parametric solid modeling; strong surface generation; catalog components; feature recognition; scanning and reverse engineering; programming verification; process simulation; high-performance machining technologies (additive and subtractive); high-speed, multi-axis CNC machines; multi-axis milling; 3D printing; hybrid machines; cells with robots feeding EDM and CNC machines; multi-tasking machines; welders and spotting presses.

All of this makes the timing of MoldMaking Technology’s annual Technology Review and Sourcing Guide perfect, as it serves to aid your product, equipment and service decision-making process. Its accurate, comprehensive, easy-to-read and use data on today’s technology, equipment, products and services will ease your research and decision making.

Our printed guide and online database offer more than 1,000 manufacturers, distributors and suppliers for more than 200 product and service categories that you employ daily. To keep this information current, MoldMaking Technology surveys and updates its supplier database every spring with the latest company contact information and product/service offerings.

This month’s Technology Review and Sourcing Guide includes a portion of that database alongside special tips, features and technology reviews published throughout the past year. The format includes key supplier profiles preceding a sourcing grid tailored to match suppliers with their respective product/service offerings (advertisers are noted in boldface type), followed by technical product and service reviews, tips and features.

The year’s latest moldmaking product developments within mold engineering/design, build and maintenance/repair are broken down into the following 10 sections: software, additive manufacturing, mold materials, hot runners, mold components, cutting tools, machining, EDM, inspection/measurement and mold maintenance, repair and surface treatment.

The data within this year’s condensed grids appears in its entirety online at moldmakingtechnology.com/suppliers. We encourage you to continue your search for even more of the latest in supplier and product information by visiting the various zones at moldmakingtechnology.com.

We hope this annual guide provides you with some purchasing power during your decision making process. Please contact us via e-mail at cfuges@gardnerweb.com with any comments or feedback.