Amerimold 2017: Multitudes of Metalworking Materials and Machines

Progressive Components' Ken Rumore (in white) provides an overview of the company's new inserted bar locks, which are part of the Z-Series line. These mega bar locks are ideal for maintaining alignment of molds weighing between 25,000 and 75,000 lbs, and they are available off-the-shelf.

The gentlemen from Alro Steel were ready for Amerimold's doors to open and featured a wide selection of mold materials, including Tool steel, aluminum, copper and alloys.

Amada Machine Tools America drew attention to its space-saving Meister V3 high-precision forming grinder, which it demoed in its booth. Amada says the machine offers faster, precision surface and profile grinding, unattended operation and touch-probe monitoring.

Crystallume, a division of RobbJack, distributed its new catalog at Amerimold, and featured its new Demon Series diamond-coated cutters for hard milling. An further advanced coating gives this line added stability in high-temp machining operations.

In addition to the nifty skeleton head on display as an example, RobbJack featured end mills from its Crystallume division that are laser measured for accuracy to within 0.0001 inch. The company says these were developed especially for electrode and mold manufacturing.

TruCool conformal cooling solutions made a splash at Amerimold and Milacron's DME brand displayed several cut-away examples of TruCool within complex mold cores and cavities for mold designers and manufacturers to see the advantages up close. The cooling channels were created using a direct metal laser melting process, DME said.

Drew Strauchen of the Haimer Group stands next to one of the company's Microset tool pre-setting machines. The newly acquired line was central to Haimer's exhibit during Amerimold, which also featured the company's precision chucks, shrink fit machines, balance inspection machines and tool room management hardware.

In the DMS booth, Amerimold attendees learn about the benefits of using Kool Flow Manifold's brass manifolds. They were painted red, white and blue because they're made in the U.S.A., of course. The company also displayed ICS full colour plaques, RED-E VAULT, Platen Guard locating rings, and many more components for mold manufacturing.

With a Rockwell hardness of 40, pre-hardened NAK55 is a high-performance, high-precision mold steel, says International Mold Steels. It was a highly-touted product at Amerimold, and attendees learned that it machines up to 40 percent faster than P20, it never needs stress-relieving, and it's very weldable.

With more than 11,000 standard components, Schunk says it offers the world’s largest assortment of gripping systems and clamping technology from one source. They brought an array of products to feature at Amerimold, including its new Tendo Slim 4ax hydraulic expansion toolholder, which is designed for axial operations and applications that require milling close to interfering contours, countersinking and reaming in five-axis machining centers.

Takumi featured its H-Series CNC machining centers at Amerimold and provided attendees with a deeper look at the "under-the-hood" construction of its double-column H10 as an example. The H10 has XYZ travels of 40" × 27" × 19"; a 30-station swing-arm automatic toolchanger; and inline, direct-drive, high-speed Big Plus spindles; as well as 30-bar (435-psi) coolant-through spindles and linear scales for starters.

TopSolid, a Missler Software company, introduced the new version of its TopSolid'Mold 7.10 software. Bill Genc provided an overview of the PDM-based CAD/CAM software at Amerimold. Based on customer feedback, the software is more flexible, and was developed to offer injection mold designers ways to reduce tooling development costs and leadtimes.

Mold engraving and texturing is what Wisconsin Engraving offers moldmakers, and at Amerimold, an emphasis was put on small details--like engraving and engraved electrode needs. The company also offers CNC machining and polishing.

The team from Boride Engineered Abrasives displayed a lot of products for mold polishing and other surface treatments. A featured product was the Foredom portable micromotor, which, despite being small and lightweight, is capable of executing fine details on metal and other media. It can polish and grind as well, they say, making it an all-purpose, convenient tool for those who work at multiple stations in the shop.

Ontario, Canada-based CGS North America introduced Version 13 of its CAM-Tool system for 3D machining of molds and dies. The company calls CAM-Tool "elite" because it's "deadly accurate," faster than competing products, and it gives "spot-free performance." These workpiece examples were on hand at Amerimold to illustrate the software's capabilities.

Proprietary steels such as Roy-Alloy Stainless, EDRO400 Stainless and P1-FM were in the spotlight at the Edro booth during Amerimold, but the company also supplies a line of premium tool steels, aluminum, copper and alloys for moldmaking--not to mention custom mold bases.

Hasco introduced several new products at Amerimold, including the Z14 self-lubricating guide bushing, Z1897 smart lock and H1248 hot runner controller. The biggest introduction, the company says, is the completely new VarioShot nozzle series featuring compact dimensions, optimal temperature control, easy service and a modular design.

Hwacheon Machinery America’s Hi-M G1 vertical machining center, shown here, was displayed for Amerimold attendees looking for superior cutting ability in graphite electrode work. The VMC can even handle dry cutting, they say. The machine is compact, rigid and comes standard with a 24,000-rpm spindle. Hwacheon also featured its Sirius-UL+ VMC with 20,000-rpm spindle, bridge-type column, FANUC control and more.

ProtoTrak CNC technology is easy to use, time-saving and powerful, says Southwestern Industries/Trak Machine Tools, supplier of mills and lathes. They brought this dual-purpose manual and automated machine to Amerimold already purchased to give both entry-level and advanced machinists a sense of its capabilities and small footprint.

It's always fascinating to watch a machine in action, and Toyoda's Stealth 965 vertical machining center didn't disappoint at Amerimold. Standard features include a temperature-controlled, 30-hp, direct-drive, 12,000-rpm spindle while a 200-block look-ahead ensures optimal speed without collision, especially in corners and complex curves, the company says.

The Wee-Split mold splitter/tipper can provide safety, efficiency, and time and cost savings in mold maintenance. Wee-Split is all-electric, controlled without a corded remote control, and has the smallest footprint available, the company says, providing a winning combination.