When machining a component, tool wear and the metal removal rate are the decisive factors. Machine learning can provide a valuable contribution to the optimisation of production costs by supporting the decision-making process for tool changes.

Moulding Expo is this year’s most important trade fair for the European tool and mould making industry. The event offers an opportunity to come together to explore current trends and challenges. 400 exhibitors have registered, with more than a third coming from abroad.

Metalcam launches the new version of Fikus ST, the CAD/CAM software specially developed for the workshop. The new Fikus ST 23 improves the automation of production processes in the shop floor and thus helps to increase productivity and profitability.

The latest edition of Industrial Tooling Corporation’s (ITC) annual product catalogue has now been published and is available to view online. Now reaching its seventeenth edition, the new catalogue is crammed with new product enhancements and developments from the cutting tool manufacturer.

The tool and mould maker Quarder was asked to produce an injection-compression mould for the manufacture of a component in microfluid technology. However, the requirements were extensive, even for experts.

Now available from Floyd Automatic Tooling is the new Crazy Mill Cool Micro series of micro end mills from Mikron Tool. With micro machining applications increasingly commonplace, this high-performance end mills could be a game changer for the industry.

Yamazaki Mazak is to make its first appearance at May’s Emaf trade show in a further sign of the company’s strengthening commitment to its Portuguese customers.

Highly complex contour areas required the smallest cutter diameters with 5-µm accuracy on 384 measuring fields, and extremely long machine runtimes: The Spe-Chip microfluidic sample carrier mould was in a league of its own. The toolmaking department at Erwin Quarder Systemtechnik in Espelkamp in Germany's Eastern Westphalia managed the project — with support from Moldino.

Matthew Boyt, Managing Director of CR Engineering in Wotton Underwood near Aylesbury bought the company from his previous employer in 2020 and since then has had a programme of investment in XYZ Machine Tools to keep up with demand.

By 2024 drink bottles made of plastic must be produced in such a way that the cap is firmly attached to the container. This requires new design concepts that are also reflected by the machines used to manufacture the moulds.