M.R. Mold & Engineering opts for Arburg to expand capabilities

By Clare Goldsberry 
Published: April 11th, 2012

Share

Meeting customers' increasing demands for liquid silicone rubber (LSR) molds is key to the business success of M.R. Mold & Engineering. As a supplier of LSR molds and proprietary auxiliary equipment to global OEMs, M.R. Mold & Engineering's President Rick Finnie, understands the need to be ready for any requirements customers have.

Recently, the Brea, CA-based company purchased an Arburg AllRounder 370S (70-ton) press with a swivel clamp which enables Finnie to provide both vertical and horizontal molding capabilities. "Not having this capability occasionally prevented us from getting the business from some customers," said Finnie in an interview at NPE. "We didn't want anything to stand in the way of increasing our business and being able to meet customers' needs."

Finnie also purchased options on the new AllRounder 370S which will provide M.R. Mold the capability to customize the molding process. For instance, the standard procedure uses a pumping unit that mixes the A and B materials with the pigment.

"The downside to this method is that the whole assembly has pigment in it, which makes it expensive and time consuming to clean it out when you change colors," Finnie explained.  "We are developing a patented method to add pigment directly at the mold entry point, so when colors are changed there's no need to clean out the entire system."

Finnie should know about colors as he molds a wide variety of colors of his cupcake and muffin pans that come in three sizes, which he gave away at NPE.  "We're continuing to perform R&D in the area of mold and pigment technology because we know quite well that consumers want colors!" Finnie emphasized.

Currently, Finnie molds his cupcake pans in a 4-cavity mold and the stores tend to buy his product in groups of four colors.  Finnie hopes his R&D will enable them to inject the pigment at the mold rather than in the mixing block, which will eventually allow him to mold one color per cavity. The purchase of the Arburg AllRounder 370S, along with the additional options, will help M.R. Mold accomplish this.

M.R. Mold & Engineering specializes in design and engineering of LSR molds and has more than 30 years of experience and expertise. The company also has expertise in rubber molds, injection molds, compression and transfer molds. In addition to M.R.'s mold design and manufacturing capabilities, the company has a 4000-sq-ft technical center for LSR mold tryouts.  Including the new Arburg AllRounder 370S, M.R. Mold owns six molding machines ranging from 55 to 110-tons. M.R. Mold & Engineering provides total solutions including cold runner systems, end-of-arm tooling (EOAT), pneumatic stuffer boxes, vacuum seals and a Universal base. M.R. Mold employs 27 people.