Moldmakers tout benefits of aluminum molds for production

The use of aluminum molds for production molding applications is the “biggest trend I’m seeing in moldmaking,” said a longtime manufacturer of cutting tools.

Mike MacArthur, vice president of engineering at RobbJack Corp., Lincoln, Calif., described interest in aluminum molds as “huge” in the past year. “My sales leads have increased at least 10 times, and tool sales for aluminum moldmaking have increased six to eight times.”

The president of Phoenix Proto Technologies LLC, Bob Lammon, echoed MacArthur’s assessment. “There are a lot more suppliers and customers out there that recognize aluminum as a great benefit,” said Lammon, whose Centreville, Mich., shop has been machining aluminum molds since the 1980s. He added that sales of aluminum and steel molds have risen in the past year, in step with the broader economy.

All images courtesy MSI Mold Builders.

Lammon conceded, however, that inquiries about aluminum remain mainly for prototype molds. “We’re always trying to educate our customers on aluminum tooling,” Lammon said, “how you can use it for many things and don’t necessarily need steel. On the production side, though, that’s where we have the biggest challenge.”

MSI Mold Builders, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Greenville, S.C., designs and builds various types of steel and aluminum molds for a range of molding processes: injection, structural-foam and structural-web, rim, blow and gas-assist. Sales Manager Toby Bral said MSI also attempts to educate customers about their options.

“There is a mix of knowledge among customers,” he said. “A lot of them, we’re still educating. Some are coming to us and asking, ‘We’d like to try this. Is this part a good application for aluminum? Do you have any concerns? Is this the way to go?'”

Bral noted that his company often experiments with aluminum prototypes before recommending them for production. He cited a customer for whom MSI created a heavy, high-quality aluminum prototype, which the customer then approved for short-term production. Bral said there is more interest in aluminum than there was 10 years ago, including production applications.

Market Factors

Mike Fecteau, senior applications engineer at machine tool builder Makino Inc., Mason, Ohio, said shorter production runs will drive demand for aluminum tooling.

And Andre Ey, vice president of die and mold technologies at Makino, said some automotive companies are already using aluminum for injection molding high volumes of select plastic parts.

Aluminum is versatile and can be used for large and small molds alike. This large core insert is being cut on a 5-axis machine.

Ey said moldmakers that provide tooling from hardened steel are always looking to improve their efficiencies, as are their customers. He cited automotive companies as an example, adding that the varieties of models, face-lifts and trim changes have increased while production volumes for any one specific tool have decreased.

“Their costs are still the same to make that tool,” Ey said, “but you don’t make as many parts with that tool anymore.” That means “the tooling cost has increased. So there is an incentive for automotive companies and tool and die companies to figure out how to make tooling cheaper.”

Enter aluminum.

The historical desirability of the metal for some shorter production runs fits nicely with the modern motivation for lean manufacturing, according to MacArthur and Bral. An order that in past years would have been for 500,000 parts now may be an order for only a fraction of that number.