Since the last edition of the World of Tooling study from 2018, the competitiveness of the tooling industry and the general macroeconomic situations in the respective countries has transformed. What are the key challenges that the industry is facing?

With two new machines arriving for saw blade manufacturers; Thomas Wenger, the Product Manager for Carbide Saws and a seasoned expert with 24 years of service at Vollmer discusses the concept behind the two new machines that will supersede the CHD270 and CHF270 saw blade processing machines.

The prerequisites for interoperability in an Industry 4.0 environment are globally applicable norms and standards. Therefore, the reference architecture model for Industry 4.0 has been developed to describe the system environment. This paper provides a first structured overview of developments in the field of Industry 4.0 standardisation.

The new home of grinding technology, Grinding Hub, celebrated its premiere in Stuttgart in May 2022. More than 370 well-known manufacturers from 23 countries presented numerous innovations across the entire grinding technology process chain — with a clear trend towards automation and digitalisation.

Whether injection moulding or machining, tooling is essential. Cheaper production and cooling close to the contour are the main arguments for producing tools using additive manufacturing. But there is more to it than that.

Germany — Researchers at the TU Berlin have been looking at how the surfaces of components used of injection moulds could be optimised. Here are some of the results.

Rapid tooling is well on its way to becoming the industry standard in many application areas. In this article we have summarised definitions, applications and much more about rapid tooling for you.

Cutting tools are the be-all and end-all of tool and mould making. Since efficiency and quality requirements in this industry are constantly increasing, suppliers respond with tools that are highly specialised to meet the demands of diverse customer applications.

The electrical discharge machines (EDM) market in Europe was heavily impacted with the emergence of the global pandemic in early 2020. A year down, the industry segment is still struggling to get back on track. We put a spotlight on the current condition of the European EDM market.

Germany — For German cutting tool specialist Bachert, an FX5 Linear grinding machine with an integrated AR300 Scara loading robot from Anca has increased productivity.