TOOL & DIE MAKING
Tool and die makers are a class of machinists in the manufacturing industries who make jigs, fixtures, dies, moulds, machine tools, cutting tools, gauges, and other tools used in manufacturing processes. Depending on which area of concentration a particular person works in, he or she may be called by variations on the name, including tool maker (toolmaker), die maker (die maker), tool fitter (tool fitter), etc.
MOULD MAKING
A mold or mould is a hollowed-out block that is filled with a liquid like plastic, glass, metal, or ceramic raw materials. The liquid hardens or sets inside the mold, adopting its shape.
INJECTION MOULDING
Injection Moulding is a manufacturing process for producing parts by injecting material into a mould. Injection moulding can be performed with a host of materials, including metals, glasses, elastomers, confections, and most commonly thermoplastic and thermosetting polymers.
SPARK EROSION
Electric discharge machining (EDM), sometimes colloquially also referred to as spark machining, spark eroding, burning, die sinking or wire erosion, is a manufacturing process whereby a desired shape is obtained using electrical discharges (Sparks) Material is removed from the work piece by a series of rapidly recurring current discharges between two electrodes, separated by a dielectric liquid and subject to an electric voltage. One of the electrodes is called the tool-electrode, or simply the ‘tool’ or ‘electrode’, while the other is called the work piece-electrode, or ‘work piece’.
MILLING
Milling is the machining process of using rotary cutters to remove material from a work piece advancing (or feeding) in a direction at an angle with the axis of the tool. It covers a wide variety of different operations and machines, on scales from small individual parts to large, heavy-duty gang milling operations. It is one of the most commonly used processes in industry and machine shops today for machining parts to precise sizes and shapes.