Services
Engineering that starts before the tool is cut
Mold Solutions provides project engineering services for plastic parts and injection molds — from the first feasibility question through to a validated tool in production.
Part and process feasibility (DFM)
Assessment of whether a part can be made the way it is drawn, and what it will cost in cycle time and tooling complexity. Wall thickness, draft, gating, parting line and ejection are reviewed before the design is frozen — the point where changes are still cheap.
Part development support
Design support for plastic parts, aimed at the tooling that has to produce them. The part and the mold are developed against each other rather than in sequence.
Customized tool specifications
Tool specifications written around your production requirements: output, tool life, steel and surface treatment, hot runner and cooling strategy, and the standards the toolmaker has to work to.
Complete mold design
Full 3D CAD and 2D mold design — single cavity through complex multi-cavity and multi-shot (2K/3K) tooling, including aluminium prototype molds for small series.
Project management
Running the project from design release to first production: follow-up at the toolmaker, review of their work, and resolution of the issues that surface between release and first shots.
Final tool validation
Validation of the finished tool against the specification and the part requirements, so the tool goes into production qualified rather than assumed good.
Also available
3D scanning, reverse engineering and 3D printing
Not every part starts as a CAD model. Where only a physical part exists — a legacy component, a hand-modified sample, a tool with no remaining documentation — 3D scanning turns it back into geometry you can work with.
3D scanning
Capturing the actual geometry of an existing part, including the deviations from the original drawing that real production leaves behind.
Reverse engineering
Rebuilding scan data into a clean, parametric CAD model that can be modified, documented and used as the basis for tooling.
3D printing
Printed parts for fit, form and function checks before a mold is committed — the cheapest point at which to find a problem.
Cost Engineering
For part cost, Mold Solutions runs CALC PRO — an online calculator that reads a STEP file and works out cycle time, machine selection, packaging and cost per part against your own machine fleet and rates.
Experience
20 years in tool design engineering and injection molding project engineering, across the full range of tooling:
- Small series aluminium prototype molds
- Complex multi-cavity molds
- Multi-shot (2K/3K) injection molds
- Molds for mass production
Customers in automotive, consumer, packaging and medical — see the portfolio for projects.