IMM 2/00

I read with great interest your article on inheriting a mold in the December 1999 issue (see "Inheriting a Mold: Helping Your Customer Make the Switch," pp. 15-17). The experience of Pulsar would seem to be very different from ours.

First of all, no mention was made of the costs associated with the transfer of a mold. I suspect that Pulsar is not QS 9000- or ISO 9002-certified, as this would require an initial inspection of the parts from the mold to determine compliance with the print. We routinely do a 100 percent dimensional layout of one piece from each cavity. For example, including an initial bench inspection, setup and sampling for approval, and a 100 percent dimensional layout check, a normal charge for an inherited four-cavity mold on a 250-ton press with a part that has 125 defined dimensions/characteristics would be about $2350 just to get the mold "into the system." 

The customer that owns the mold seldom knows the details of the mold and rarely supplies an accurate mold design drawing or current operating cycle. Sometimes the mold requires adapter plates. Or, thanks to ill-designed cooling systems, it will not run at a reasonable cycle. In such cases we specify a cycle at which we expect the mold will produce satisfactory parts from all existing cavities.

As a custom molder we want the mold to be in good condition, but it's often the customer that will not pay for repairs, or asks if we can't just run it as it is "for a while."

When a molder is asked to inherit a mold, it's usually because there is trouble, either with the mold itself, or with the relationship between the former molder and the customer. Usually the former molder does not feel too kindly towards the customer. The only time I can ever remember seeing an existing mold running in a shop before it arrived on our dock was when a customer had the mold in his own shop, and let me see it in operation.

As I say, Pulsar's experiences are certainly different from mine!
-Name withheld by request