MoldMaking Technology

Most shops don't buy full automation on day one — budget, floor space, and confidence in the process all take time to line up.

Kitamura's answer to that timing problem: build automation readiness from the start and let the pallets come later.

The company's new Supercell-1000G is a 45-ton, five-axis horizontal machining center built on box-way construction and aimed at heavy, deep-cavity work in aerospace, defense, and energy. What distinguishes it isn't size alone — the machine was engineered from the beginning to accept a pallet pool on the front end whenever a customer is ready, not as a retrofit, but as a planned expansion.

That same incremental thinking extends to AI adoption. Current capability is deliberately limited, in part because a significant share of customers operate in defense and aerospace environments with strict security requirements.

The company traces its automation lineage to a 40-pallet Supercell built in 1985 — framing this large-format push less as a new direction and more as the next step in a four-decade bet.

Read the full piece for the complete picture. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/machine-tool-builder-betting-big-(literally)-on-automation-you-can-add-later

Ultra-precision hard milling has long depended on a familiar cycle: machine, remove, inspect, adjust, recut. Closed-loop machining systems are changing that logic fundamentally.

The core problem is straightforward: most machines know where they commanded the tool to go — not where the cutting edge actually cuts. Runout, thermal growth, wear and spindle loading alter tool geometry continuously. At micron-level tolerances, that gap between intended and actual geometry becomes visible on the finished workpiece.

Closed-loop systems address this through three integrated capabilities:

- Optical measurement of the actual cutting-edge profile at 100 nm resolution — not catalog geometry
- Automatic compensation applied at the controller level, without regenerating CAM programs
- On-machine workpiece verification at ±1 µm resolution, enabling corrective machining without breaking setup

The process shifts from machine → remove → inspect → adjust → recut to machine → measure → compensate → continue.

The result is reduced recut cycles, less polishing, lower operator dependency and more reliable unattended production.

The advancement is not faster spindles or finer positioning increments. It is closing the loop between CAD geometry, actual tool condition and final machined surface.

Read the full article to understand what this means for precision moldmaking at scale. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/closing-the-loop-on-ultra-precision-mold-machining

Inspection in a mold shop no longer has to mean pulling a tool off the machine and waiting in line for the CMM.

According to Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, the most common question shops are asking right now is: how do I inspect on my machine to ensure the tool is correct? The answer is reshaping where and when measurement happens.

The approach described spans several tools working together:

- Portable laser trackers that map machine geometry, catching inconsistencies between nominally identical machines
- Handheld scanners generating color maps of material removal after heat treat
- Probes that reach deep ribs and tight pockets a scanner cannot

Beyond catching errors, one application involves scanning a finished mold at shipment to establish a digital baseline. Scan it again a year later, and the comparison shows exactly where wear has occurred.

The framing is explicitly tolerance-driven, not prescriptive. Scanning suits plastics and looser tolerances. Chasing a thousandth still means a CMM.

On AI: "It doesn't replace the knowledge of the metrologist or the machinist, but it frees up their time."

Read the full report for the complete picture. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/why-moldmakers-are-moving-inspection-onto-the-machine-instead-of-into-a-separate-room

The skilled labor shortage is no longer just a talking point — it is actively reshaping machine tool design, automation strategy, and training programs.

Reporting from IMTS 2026 reveals a manufacturing industry confronting its constraints with unusual candor. Several interconnected shifts emerged across the show floor:

- Machines are being designed to reduce dependence on deep expertise, not to replace experienced workers, but to make more work possible without requiring one person to know everything
- AI conversations moved from speculation to boundaries — what it can verify, where it should be contained, and how it differs from rules-based automation
- Automation is increasingly modular, allowing shops to add pallet systems, robots, or tool changers incrementally rather than through a single large investment
- Inspection is migrating closer to the machine, changing the question from how to reach a CMM to whether a CMM is necessary at all
- Material costs, including carbide and tariff pressures, have entered the technology conversation as a planning variable

Perhaps most telling: some of the most valued innovations at the show were small ergonomic and procedural fixes — a second door, a lighter tool assembly, a simplified calibration step.

Technology is increasingly being designed around the reality that expertise is scarce, expensive, and unevenly distributed. The full report is worth reading carefully. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/my-take-on-imts-2026-innovations-solving-real-shop-needs

UNISIG reinvests 90 percent of its profits back into the company — not as a goal, but as a standing agreement between its founders.

That forced-investment policy has concrete consequences. The company outsources almost nothing beyond heat treating and select coatings. Its newest gundrill regrinding system — including a mineral-composite machine base — was designed, engineered, and manufactured entirely in-house.

The software behind that grinder addresses a specific problem: gundrills are small and genuinely difficult to inspect for wear. The new system replaces manual calibration with a visual interface that works like an optical tool presetter, while the underlying math runs in the background. One customer reported that the change allowed line-level operators to take on regrinding work previously reserved for senior supervisors.

On service, the company carries roughly $4 million in parts inventory and runs expanded preventive maintenance programs at customer sites.

On AI: used internally to accelerate software development — compressing roughly a year of ERP integration work into two to three months — but not trusted to make shop floor decisions.

Read the full piece to understand the structural logic behind each of these choices. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/the-gun-drilling-machine-builder-that-reinvests-90-percent-of-its-profits-on-purpose

Months after training in South Korea, Jeremy Draper is putting that experience to work at Yudo's U.S. facility — and the manifold manufacturing process that once felt unfamiliar now makes sense to him from start to finish.

Draper works from drawings received from the design group before manufacturing starts. He can now identify each component on a manifold, along with the dimensions and measurements needed to build it — a foundation that determines how every part gets machined.

Progress on the Mazak machines has followed the same method he used in South Korea: detailed notes taken during the day, reviewed regularly to reinforce what was learned.

When a counterbore and gun drill program failed to upload correctly, his team retraced every step in the program to find where it broke down — a troubleshooting approach Draper now applies broadly on the floor.

One observation stands out: CNC commands and controls translate across machine brands more than expected, which reduces the learning curve as the facility expands its capabilities.

Read the full update to follow his progress. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/the-making-of-a-manufacturing-professional-from-korea-training-to-cnc-machine-programming

Upgrading existing equipment may be a stronger business case than it first appears.

At IMTS, Heidenhain demonstrated a full retrofit on a 2005 Deckel Maho machine — new digital drives, control, motors, scales, and wireless remote — wrapped to avoid naming any machine-builder partner. The intent was to make the case for retrofitting broadly, not to promote a specific project.

The economics sharpen on larger equipment. A gantry machine valued at two to three million dollars, with structurally sound iron, becomes a logical candidate for new motion control technology. For shops facing long lead times on new machines — particularly in aerospace and defense — a retrofit can take roughly six months and serves as a lower-stakes environment to train staff on a new CNC control.

Also introduced: Heidi, Heidenhain's AI agent trained exclusively on internal documentation, programming standards, and maintenance knowledge. "It doesn't go out to the internet," says VP Gisbert Ledvon. "It has to be contained, because AI is not there yet to give you really reliable information otherwise."

Read the full report for more. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/heidenhain-wrapped-a-machine-in-disguise-to-make-a-point-about-retrofitting

Awareness has to come before recruitment — and that sequence is harder than it sounds in moldmaking.

Most students arrive at a shop tour believing plastic parts come from 3D printers. Few have ever considered what a mold is, let alone the precision required to build one. That knowledge gap is where Electroform Company starts.

Design engineer and project manager Zach Clark has presented at eight high schools and works with a local community college, bringing core-and-cavity stacks to show how many components go into a single plastic part. He walks students forward from raw steel or backward from a familiar product — a phone case, a water bottle — to the mold that made it.

Not every school partnership holds. Electroform has stepped back from programs that push exclusively toward four-year degrees or lack qualified machining instructors, focusing instead on those showing real growth.

When a student does engage, hiring becomes deliberate: multiple interviews, time with the shop foreman, and scenario questions designed to reveal how someone thinks under pressure.

Read the full MMT Chat to hear how Electroform structures that pipeline. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/mmt-chats-turning-plastic-part-curiosity-into-hires

Four decades of metalworking machinery data reveal a cycle that often moves independently of economy-wide recessions — and that is precisely what makes it useful.

U.S. industrial production of metalworking machinery has shown a clear but imperfect relationship with the National Bureau of Economic Research business-cycle chronology since 1972. In several episodes — including the 1990-91 and 2001 recessions — the machinery cycle turned before the broader economy. In others, such as 2022-25, a prolonged capital-investment contraction occurred without any NBER-identified recession at all.

The reason is structural. Machinery purchases depend on expectations about future demand, financing costs, capacity utilization and technology. When those expectations shift, capital expenditures are often among the first decisions reconsidered — even while the broader economy continues to grow.

The most recent data suggest the machinery cycle reached a trough in Q1 2025 and has since recovered for five consecutive quarters, reaching 3.4 in Q2 2026. Whether this becomes a sustained investment expansion remains the central question.

The full analysis examines each major cycle from 1972 through mid-2026. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/the-moldmaking-cycle-what-four-decades-of-production-reveal-about-industrial-investment

Sealing metric cooling plugs in injection molds is a persistent challenge for North American mold designers and builders.

The difficulty stems from unfamiliarity with British standard pipe parallel (BSPP) and British standard pipe taper (BSPT) thread systems. Unlike NPT fittings — standard in North American shops — both BSPP (G) and BSPT (R) threads require additional sealing tape or sealant to seal off. NPT and BSP threads are not interchangeable: different thread angles and profile geometries make cross-mating damaging and incapable of meeting required pressure ratings.

Two machining principles are critical:

- The cooling line core diameter must never exceed the minimum thread core ID
- The drilled hole diameter must remain within the minor cooling line and tap drill diameter specifications before threading begins

Thread compatibility also matters. BSPP male fittings accept only female parallel threads, while BSPT male fittings accept both female parallel and female tapered threads.

Pressure testing cooling line systems before production is recommended to eliminate leak risks.

Full thread specifications and reference charts are available in the complete article. https://www.moldmakingtechnology.com/articles/how-to-machine-and-seal-metric-cooling-line-threads