Manufacturing technologies in mould industry and future challenges

This report is based on the manufacturing technologies actively used in the industry. The mould industry in Portugal is one of the biggest and considered the best in quality of moulds in various types of industries like Automobile, Medical and Aerospace. The State of the art mould manufacturing technologies like conformal cooling in complex parts, multi cavity moulds are taking over the industry standards to a new level of competitiveness in terms of business and quality achievement. The industry in Portugal is very well known for the quality of the moulds and the process fabrication of mould tools. The future is becoming more and more competitive with advancement in lean manufacturing and the enormous advancement in the 3D printers. With more time the advance in these technologies will help the requirement of polymer parts be met with high power and high capability of print quality achievable it is seen to be posing a threat to the mould manufacturers. They are in dire need to update the manufacturing process and to be in touch with the developments of production technologies in the world of polymers to stay in the competitive market for a long time. This report will touch upon the present manufacturing techniques and state of the art technologies that are coming into use in the industry and the challenges this industry will face due to increase in use of 3D printers