| Over the course of the last 30 years I have only | | | | 5. Many mold makers have completed 2 years of |
| met a handful of people outside the | | | | technical school, after high school. This is just to |
| manufacturing community who know anything at | | | | get hired as an apprentice. The normal |
| all about plastic injection mold making. I still find | | | | apprenticeship lasts at least 3 more years. This is |
| this disappointing; why should something as | | | | a rather intense learning period, after which he is |
| essential to our modern way of life be so | | | | becomes a journeyman. This means he is |
| unknown? | | | | supposed to know most everything, but really, it |
| Some of the comments I have heard when I tell | | | | is just enough to get into a lot of trouble! It takes |
| people that I am an injection mold maker are | | | | a lot of concentrated effort to truly master the |
| downright comical. Usually the funniest are from | | | | skills required. |
| people with graduate degrees; I suppose they | | | | 6. Some of the smartest people you will ever |
| have been in school so long they never had time | | | | meet work as mold makers. Some of these guys |
| for practical things! Because I live in a university | | | | do things like build airplanes in their spare time. |
| town and have a number of children, I have a lot | | | | The nature of the trade is to be inventive, so, if |
| of interaction with doctors and professors. Usually | | | | they ever have any spare time, you can be sure |
| I don't even try to explain, I just tell them | | | | that most guys are busy making electrical |
| something about engineering and industry and | | | | generators powered by the sun or a river, building |
| they nod their head. | | | | race car engines, or building a timber-frame house |
| Here are 10 things that most people just don't | | | | by hand. |
| know about this interesting and essential trade. | | | | 7. The typical mold maker works a 10 hour day, |
| | | | and often 5 hours on Saturday. Despite the fact |
| 1. A typical injection mold might take well over | | | | that a Chinese tradesman will do approximately |
| 1,000 hours to manufacture. This always draws a | | | | the same thing for about $2 per hour, there is still |
| frown, how could it take so long? Many jobs run | | | | a huge amount of work in certain markets, such |
| well over 2,000 hours. All this for a cell phone or | | | | as medical. |
| medical device that is just taken for granted! | | | | 8. Injection mold making is incredibly global. It is |
| 2. A mold might cost anywhere from $20,000 to | | | | normal to use tools and components from the |
| $500,00! It's a wonder things don't cost more | | | | USA, Europe, and Japan. It is truly remarkable |
| than they do! It also helps to explain why the | | | | that you can use a machine made in Switzerland, |
| wages do not really reflect the skill level of the | | | | use tooling made in Sweden, cutters made in |
| worker. | | | | Japan or Korea, steel made in the US, and it all |
| 3. The individual components of the mold all fit | | | | works, very well. |
| together extremely accurately: typically all the | | | | 9. Mold making has never been successfully |
| pieces are within a tolerance of .0002 in/.005 mm. | | | | unionized. This is highly unlikely in the future either. |
| This doesn't mean much, until it is put into | | | | Most mold makers are highly independent and not |
| perspective. Just imagine taking a cigarette paper | | | | the least bit interested in a union. This is a good |
| and splitting it along the thickness. Now split it | | | | thing for the consumer, otherwise things made of |
| again and you have a thickness of .0002 in. That | | | | plastic would be much more expensive! I did work |
| is small! | | | | in a union shop once, but it was in name only; |
| 4. A mold maker must have a very wide range | | | | mostly to get work from an aerospace company. |
| of skill and experience. Trigonometry, geometry, | | | | 10. Mold makers are the type of person that |
| metallurgy, computer skills, hydraulics, electronics, | | | | would stop to help you, if you had a flat tire on |
| hand working skills, and an almost endless amount | | | | the highway. Not only that, but if you had no |
| of machining skills. It literally takes years to | | | | jack, they would give you their own! Next time |
| acquire the knowledge to master the many | | | | you use something made of plastic, thank an |
| facets of injection mold making. | | | | injection mold maker! |