Ahead

10-01-22 Molds sector knowledge moving forward

Considering that a mold is actually an integrated complex machine that can transform and shape plastic or other materials into usable and useful and has years of cumulated different knowledge and study, its important to continue promote and gather all existent best practices to continuously develop it to get more out that, in terms of its efficiency and applications.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and The University of Toledo, College of Engineering understand this and teamed up for a workshop to gather insights from technology and service suppliers within the mold manufacturing community about the challenges mold builders face and the areas on which to focus their R&D efforts.

What follows are some of the findings from this workshop that covered advanced manufacturing technology for automotive molds and dies, material innovations, Industry 4.0, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) and workforce development and training.

Advanced Technologies

Participants noted that the primary drivers needed to move the industry beyond tribal knowledge include automation, training, simulation/analytics, systematic documentation, AI and systems engineering.

Mold builders know that sensors, ML(machine learning) and AI (artificial Intelligence) technologies are here to stay because they offer:

Reduced equipment downtime
Process validation
Higher quality parts
Data
Longer life
Predictive tool repair
Reduced downtime
Better repeatability
Higher quality
Failure prevention
Participants acknowledge that simulation and automation tools play a role in advancing this industry, as they offer:

Increased analytical DOEs/validations (less trial and error)
More highly engineered solutions
Better process repeatability
More efficient troubleshooting

Workforce Development

Education and training continue to be a hot topic, and we are witnessing a revolution in training and development. To fill the skills gap and properly arm the next generation of moldmaking professionals, we need to educate students and retrain and “uptrain” current employees focused on strong engineering and analytical skills and emerging technologies such as AM(additive manufacturing) and alternate manufacturing material options.

From an education standpoint, academia struggles to keep up with technology to make it part of the curriculum and they are not matching industry’s needs with education. Instead, they need to deliver micro chunks of information so that people can pick up the specific skills they need when they need them. Plus, teachers should have real-world experience and get back to basics with hands-on training.

Tomorrow’s mold builder must be flexible, detail-oriented, patient and persistent. In addition, they must understand both design and manufacturing, possess a desire to learn new technology and be a proficient problem-solver.