MoldMaking Technology Magazine

For years, inspection in a mold shop meant one thing: pull the tool off the machine, get in line for the CMM and wait. One metrology company says that model is starting to break down, not because CMMs stopped being useful, but because shops can't afford the wait anymore. How do I inspect on my machine to ensure the tool is correct?

Every IMTS, I walk the show floor wondering how many of the conversations I have are really just press releases with a microphone and camera in front of them. This year, I decided to listen more. I ended up having very different conversations than I expected from the pre-show press material. I let people get past the talking points and asked what was really happening at their booths—not just what was in the press release.

Verisurf Software introduces an online 3D scanning configurator that helps manufacturers select a complete scanning solution for their applications. The configurator guides users through three clear choices, then presents a recommended package with bundled pricing. The three-step process includes: Select a Verisurf software module: Analysis, Automate or Reverse. Select a Scanology scanner model: Simscan-S, Simscan-E, Simscan 42 or Simscan 30.

Most companies decide year to year how much profit to reinvest. UNISIG made that decision permanent. “Between me and my business partner, that's just an agreement we have. We reinvest 90 percent of our profits back into the company,” says UNISIG CEO Anthony Fettig. He calls it a forced investment. It’s budget that has to go back into equipment and capability rather than sitting as profit. That policy shows up directly in how much the company builds itself.

Jeremy Draper is getting hands-on with Mazak's conversational programming, working through the controls and logic behind every CNC job he runs. Recently, he and his team troubleshot a counterbore and gun drill program by retracing every step until they found the issue. Source (all images): Jeremy Draper Jeremy Draper has spent the months since his South Korea training putting that experience to work at Yudo's U.S. facility.

PCS Company’s Temptek’s Water Temperature Control Units are engineered to establish the desired operating temperature and maintain stable conditions throughout production. They automatically maintain the set temperature by heating water circulating through them or blending cooling water into the flow, as needed.

Walk up to a machine wrapped head to toe so nobody can identify it and the point isn't mystery for its own sake. It's a workaround. “We want to help people to upgrade their machines,” says Gisbert Ledvon, Heidenhain VP - Machine Tool. So this year at IMTS, the company took a 2005 Deckel Maho machine, wrapped it completely and rebuilt it from the control down: new digital drives, a new control, a wireless remote, new motors, new scales. The point wasn't to sell that specific retrofit.

Ask a high schooler how a plastic part gets made and the answer is almost always the same: 3D printing. Ask how a mold is built and most have never thought about it. That gap in awareness is part of why manufacturing keeps struggling to get in front of students before they've already picked a path. Zach Clark, a design engineer and project manager at Electroform Company, regularly runs into that gap.

Tool rooms are changing. What used to be a back-corner operation, disconnected from the rest of the shop, is increasingly becoming a data-driven hub that touches every part of the manufacturing process. At IMTS 2026, HAIMER wants attendees to see exactly what that shift looks like in practice. The company’s booth features a dedicated area called the Tool Room of the Future, and it’s built around a guided tour rather than a product lineup.

The business cycle looks different when viewed through the lens of metalworking machinery, which captures industrial mold manufacturing. For manufacturers of machine tools and other metalworking equipment, the economy does not simply move through expansions and recessions. Machinery production can accelerate before broader economic activity turns upward, while investment can weaken long before an economy-wide downturn becomes apparent.