Mold components supplier D-M-E Co. now supplies a contour-roughing service, where the company mills out nearly 90 percent of steel plates before shipping them.
That saves mold makers time and machine wear, so they can focus on high-value machining of core and cavity plates, D-M-E said.
“Every penny and minute saved makes these shops more viable in an increasingly competitive global market,” said Chuck Azzopardi, D-M-E's global business manager.
Customers send their computer-aided-design files to D-M-E, which uses CAM software to program three-dimensional cavity roughing tool paths. The customer finishes the machining work.
In other news, D-M-E will offer its Euro-Series of metric mold components, a line of more than 4,000 products, in North America. D-M-E also introduced two valve gate controllers, the VCTH-4000 and VCTH-8000, both for hydraulic valve operation of gate sequencing. The controllers use solid-state timers and relays with a life rating of 10 million cycles.
D-M-E is based in Madison Heights, Mich.
Tel. 248-544-5718, e-mail [email protected].