Tool engineering: Making the leap from tooling engineer to tool characterization engineerTool engineering: Making the leap from tooling engineer to tool characterization engineer
Many tooling engineers are excellent hands-on moldmakers who are extremely good at understanding the mold’s mechanical operations, how the mold functions in producing parts, and defining the initial process window; someone we might call a Tooling Engineer. What is needed in today’s global manufacturing environment is a Tool Characterization Engineer (TCE) to bring the mold development, mold validation and molding processes into the 21st century. Why do we need TCEs?
July 12, 2010
Many tooling engineers are excellent hands-on moldmakers who are extremely good at understanding the mold’s mechanical operations, how the mold functions in producing parts, and defining the initial process window; someone we might call a Tooling Engineer. What is needed in today’s global manufacturing environment is a Tool Characterization Engineer (TCE) to bring the mold development, mold validation and molding processes into the 21st century.
Why do we need TCEs?
The injection molding industry has evolved greatly over the past three decades as molds, molding technology, and materials have evolved. Today’s major OEMs are demanding higher cavitation molds that accommodate more complex part designs with tighter tolerance requirements to meet various customer, regulatory, and GMP standards that have been established over the past few decades. As customer requirements have moved beyond what the traditional Level 1 tooling engineer can do using traditional methods—trial and error, multiple iterations, and guess work. Management should understand that if it doesn’t have engineers capable of dealing with the more complex situations and requirements that exist in moldmaking and molding operations today, it will cost them money. Upgrading people with traditional skill sets by training, or hiring people who already have a grasp of these new skill sets, will save the company money and enhance its competitiveness in the global marketplace over the long run.
Algoryx Inc., a Los Angeles-based systems engineering company, provides Mold Characterization Studies for the plastics processing industry that involve molds/tooling. The Algoryx system uses state-of-the-art correlation science and technology to speed up mold development by eliminating iterations during tryout and reducing validation costs, cycle times, and cost-of-quality in production.
While there will always be a need for the hands-on tooling engineer, today’s injection mold development, mold validation and molding process technologies demand the engineers with expanded skill sets that Algoryx calls “Tool Characterization Engineers.” TCEs are comfortable with computer-generated data analyses, understand customer requirements like process capability (Cpk), and function as integral members of mold development/validation/production teams.
The TCE will not only be comfortable working with new and more powerful ways of analyzing part data, but beyond that will trust both the data and the analysis results enough to make decisions on when and how to tune the mold, when to ask for tolerance relaxations, and when to ask for both.
Working with a system such as Algoryx requires that today’s tooling engineers move to the next level of knowledge, understanding, and trust. The TCE is comfortable looking at charts and graphs, understands Cpk, and also understands the basic principles of Algoryx’s technology. Algoryx’s Correlation Master software provides the algorithms, does the calculations, and generates all the charts and tables needed for decision-making. This output is presented as a Mold Characterization Study (MCS). It isn’t necessary that the TCE know how to replicate the MCS calculations. In fact, the calculations are transparent to the TCE. The TCE just needs to understand, accept, and trust the transition to a new and more powerful technology for mold characterization.
The fundamental principle of the Algoryx system is extraordinarily simple: part dimensions are linearly related to each other when plotted on an X-Y chart, also known as a correlation chart. Accepting this fundamental principle shouldn’t be hard for most engineers or technicians. The real data measured by real measuring equipment on real parts made from real molds on real presses proves this fundamental point on each and every mold analysis and correlation chart that is generated in each and every MCS.
The transition from the traditional tooling engineer to TCE
Some tooling engineers may find it difficult to trust the data when they first see Algoryx’s technology being demonstrated, even though it’s evident from the numbers. Yet the data that they are being given—the data-based conclusions—are key to understanding how to tune the mold.
Traditional tooling engineers, and the industry as a whole, are used to seeing measurement data presented in a cause-and-effect format. In other words, measured part dimensions from the mold are presented as a function of one or more combinations of press settings, i.e. temperatures, injection speeds and pressures, pack and hold times. This is how DOE works: DOE relates – or more accurately, attempts to relate – press settings to part dimensions.
While it may be true that traditional tooling engineers have a lot of experience under their belts, and a lot of knowledge and know-how when it comes to tasks such as developing a 96-cavity medical mold, that experience and know-how is usually not optimum in today’s demanding development, validation, and processing environment. The traditional methods used do not save time and money, do not eliminate iterative tool tuning, sequential cuts in steel, or making multiple requests for tolerance relaxations every time press settings are changed.
When the TCE understands and accepts the Algoryx principles, then the MCS charts and tables provide all the information a TCE needs to make decisions—data-based decisions. This is key because if the TCE chooses to change the mold, then the entire development team will know through incontrovertible and verifiable data provided by the MCS results that the mold needs to be modified, and why.
Many times, tooling engineers without this basic knowledge of how part dimensions are related and how to use the relationships are so distrustful of using this critically important information that they can’t make the mental and emotional leaps to allowing the data to help them tune and validate a mold in a timely, cost-effective manner.
While correlation technology may be new to some tooling engineers, it has been well established and accepted in many technical and scientific disciplines for years. Global tooling managers trust statistical data because generally they are very familiar with it. They realize that while understanding the mold and the molding process is important, they know it is just as important to step back and allow advanced algorithms and software to provide the information needed to move forward in tuning the mold and then to validation and finally to production.
Making the leap to trusting the data
What are the requirements for a Tool Characterization Engineer (TCE)? A TCE would be an engineer who believes in data, practices data-based decision-making, has a rudimentary knowledge of process capability (Cpk) and understands X-Y correlation charts. A mold manufacturing company owner once said he was eager to get younger people into his shop because he needed more “Nintendo kids.” That is, he wanted those young people who had grown up with software games and computers, and who weren’t afraid of new technology.
So first, a TCE should be someone who is comfortable with looking at output from computer programs. Second, a TCE wouldn’t necessarily need to have 25 years of hands-on moldmaking experience. In fact it might be better if they don’t have that much hands-on experience, because they will have fewer pre-conceived notions and limitations on what is possible with new—to them—forms of data analysis.
Some Algoryx users have found their TCE in a former tooling engineer, usually coming from a tooling development organization within an OEM, not at the moldmaker. Some TCEs come from the process engineering side of the business, or sometimes a quality engineer steps into that position. Generally, they more likely will be people who trust data, and make data-based decisions. In other words, they will be comfortable with the process and part data sets and allow that data-based information to drive their decision-making.
The job description for an MCE might also include:
• Completed the Algoryx Certified Tooling Engineer training
• Has technical abilities
• Is able to interface with other team members at his level
• Is able to interface with the external or internal customer on tolerance relaxations
Many of Algoryx’s customers require the TCE to develop and validate a specified number of molds each year using Mold Characterization Studies. The TCE’s annual performance reviews are based on the number of molds actually validated using Mold Characterization Studies vs. the TCE’s target number.
Moldmakers and molding companies need to find, bring in, train, and develop TCEs that can make tooling decisions faster and better than traditional tooling engineers, and so deliver molds that have proven capability to meet customer Cpk requirements. It’s possible that a company can convert a traditional tooling engineer to a TCE, or it may have to find a different person, one more comfortable using new mold development technology and data-based decision-making.
Steve W. Tuszynski is the president of Algoryx Inc.
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