Mold Development

Tooling is where a project schedule is usually lost, which is why we keep it in-house. Before steel is cut, the mold shop reviews the design for draft, wall thickness, gate position and cooling. Most of the defects that appear in T1 — sink marks, warpage, short shots, visible weld lines — are decided at that review, not at the press.

When a design cannot be molded as drawn, the conversation happens before the tool exists. That is the cheapest moment to change a wall thickness or move a gate; after cutting it is a modification, a delay and a cost someone has to absorb.

T1 is a measurement, not a photograph

T1 samples are measured against the drawing dimensions and reported with deviations, not just photographed on a table. A buyer can see which dimensions are inside tolerance and which need a tool correction, instead of being asked to judge from a picture.

T2 follows when T1 is out of tolerance, with the correction stated on paper. Production is not released on a tool that has not yet met the drawing.

Ownership and maintenance

Tooling ownership is written into the contract. Tools that run are maintained on a schedule, and the wear parts — ejector pins, gate inserts, sliders — are listed so that a repeat order three years later is not a surprise.

If a mold has been idle, we run a trial before quoting a repeat order rather than assuming the last good settings still hold.