Portuguese mould makers pushing the limits

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Going the extra mile with the latest machinery

Growing turnover from €15.5m in 2011 to €25.3m in 2013 requires determination and innovative minds, and CEO Manuel Domingues and Paolo Sousa possess both and are constantly expanding their business. The directors go the extra mile to ensure their clients’ aspirations are met, and with 70% of the company’s automotive work going to lighting projects requiring complex, high-precision moulds, the demands and stakes are high.

When MD Moldes acquired the company Fastooling to expand their capabilities in the area of complex tools, they not only invested in the best 5-axis CNC milling machines available, but also expanded their range of EDM machines. Today, the company operates three EDM sinkers from OPS Ingersoll, and is especially pleased with the service from Star-Mill. “Service is a key factor to make a purchasing decision,” says Domingues. “While we are manufacturing some parts with a special technology that cannot be sparked, we use our three Gantry Eagle EDMs to make pockets that are nearly impossible to machine otherwise. EDM is an important technology, for some work with normal tolerances it is also quicker than milling. We always have to decide which process is the most cost-efficient for our company.”

The latter is especially important for smaller companies like Marinha Grande-based VL Moldes, who have not only upgraded their EDM and milling machines, but streamlined their processes to increase productivity and eliminate errors. Back in 1997, when the two partners, Vitor Cardoso and Luis Cardoso, founded the company, they were running only one EDM machine, and assembly of one mould could take as long as six weeks. Today, the same work only takes two days, Vitor Cardoso explains, not least due to the latest equipment, including an automated Eagle 800 EDM and a High-Speed Eagle V9 5-axis milling machine with a Heidenhain control from OPS Ingersoll. The 5-axis machine ensures the high demands in accuracy (+/- 10 µm) are met, eliminating manual finishing operations of most parts. “Thanks to the reduced set-up times and the high accuracy, we have reduced our lead times by 20%,” Cardoso says. Still, EDM is a very important process for the company, which manufactures small to medium moulds for automotive and other industries, with an annual turnover of around €1.5m.

Due to the extremely large number of different electrodes needed for intricate moulds, automation is paramount for the company, but for Cardoso, automation is more than a robot. Here, automation is the workflow generated to maintain and sustain the number of electrodes needed, and to make sure that the right electrode is at the right place at the right time. Manual work around the EDM process has been nearly eliminated. “As a result, we reduced our errors by 70%,” Cardoso says. VL Moldes is prepared for the challenges to come. “We want to be challenged,” concludes Cardoso, and with its unique optimised processes and the new equipment the company is certainly ready for future growth.

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