MMT Blog

13 Jan 2016

Can You Build a Mold for This?

Over the years, I have listened as my dad related stories of how someone called him or came to his mold shop to enlist his help with making a new product that they invented, usually for the consumer market.

Workforce Development 12 Jan 2016

NIMS Credentials Help Lead Next Gen Workforce Development

Maintaining national industry standards inside the classroom is no easy task but the faculty and staff of Eastern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center once again rose to the challenge and officially renewed the national accreditation of the Machine Tool Technology program.

11 Jan 2016

Think Outside the Box

By nature moldmakers are producers, problem-solvers and inventors. So maybe it’s time to actually make that unique product solution you have rolling around in your head, and Kickstarter can help.

8 Jan 2016

The Designer's Edge: More on Lifters

Lifters can cause read through and gloss issues due to a lack of cooling, deflection (as mentioned in last blog) and the lifter not being flush with the cavity surface.

Education 7 Jan 2016

More Companies to Benefit from the R&D Tax Credit!

After learning that the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 was signed into law late last month, I got a call from past MMT "tax" contributor Scott Schmidt of the Black Line Group. The vote on the Act prompted him to reach out to me to discuss the changes, so I wanted to quickly share them with MMT readers.

6 Jan 2016

Is Your Company Social?

Does your company utilize social media to promote its products and services? MMT was in receipt of a press announcement from MME Group, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based box build contract manufacturer of small- to medium-sized parts and products, telling us they’ve launched a new, two-and-a-half minute YouTube video and channel to promote the company’s services. It got us thinking about how many other companies, and in particular, mold manufacturers, are doing this, too?

Leadership 4 Jan 2016

New Year, New Opportunities to Advance

Happy New Year! It’s January 2016 and that means there’s a whole new year ahead of us that’s filled with new opportunities to advance company goals and profitability.

1 Jan 2016

Pursuing Perfection with Cold-Formed Cavities

A unique process for creating mirror-finish, tubular insert IDs has broken bottlenecks and driven this moldmaker to expand capabilities and raise quality standards.

1 Jan 2016

PVD Coatings and Tool Steel Selection

Mold users are driving an increased use of physical vapor deposition (PVD) coatings, and this has generated questions and concerns from mold builders as they select materials from which to manufacture their molds. PVD coatings are a family of very thin (approximately 2 to 5 microns) metal layers applied in a vacuum chamber using a plasma process.