**Recent Articles:**
Front-Loading Glass Fiber Considerations: The Design Review That Prevents Warpage
How a $30,000 “savings” became a $120,000 rebuild—and what every engineer should know about long strand glass fiber before committing to tooling.
The part came out of the mold twisted like a potato chip.
Not slightly warped. Not dimensionally challenged. Twisted. Thirty to sixty millimeters off nominal in the worst areas on a three-foot-long substrate that had to fit precisely into a vehicle assembly.
We had welding fixtures waiting for accurate samples. Punch dies ready to be set up. Assembly jigs designed around parts that would actually be straight.
Instead, we had expensive, twisted plastic that wouldn’t fit anywhere near where it needed to be.
And we knew exactly why—because someone had ignored what the mold flow analysis told us.
“The $800,000 lesson that changed how I approach every injection molding project…”
Talking about culture, leadership, and sustainable systems.
• I work with leadership to secure commitment and resources
• I design tailored systems for each organization
• I help individuals see how best practices benefit them personally
• I create sustainable culture change, not just project fixes
When “industry standard” pricing doesn’t make sense, sometimes the best solution is a napkin sketch and a talented local tool maker.
“We’re going through pins every shift.”
That’s the message I got from our setup team on a Thursday afternoon. Not every week. Not every day. Every. Single. Shift.
We were running structural web molding—a low-pressure nitrogen injection process that lets you fill large, thick areas of a part while reducing weight and maintaining surface finish quality. Beautiful technology when it works. Expensive nightmare when it doesn’t.
The problem? Our nitrogen injection pins cost up to $3,000 each. And we needed up to 10 pins per mold on complex parts.
You do the math. That’s $30,000 in pins for a single mold. And we were replacing them constantly.
The Hidden Capacity Already Sitting in Your Shop
We were facing a capacity crisis. A new program was coming in, our injection resource planning showed we were running at 90% capacity, and we needed more machines. Fast.
**From Complex to Simple: How One Injection Moulding Innovation Delivered a Complete Swimming Pool Entry System in a Single Shot**
*35 years in injection molding has taught me that the best solutions often come from rethinking the entire system, not just fixing individual problems.*
The $60,000 Mold That Cost $300,000 (And How to Offshore Right)
I’d been brought on as their in-house project engineer specifically to manage launches like this one.
My new employer had just taken delivery of their Dock Mate decking tooling – 3 molds with 24 interchangeable insertsdesigned to run across all three tools.
Read More → How to do Offshore better