Going for the Green vs. Getting in the Hole

During the recent Molding Innovation Day 2021, sponsored by Moldex3D and the Polymers Center of Excellence, Rich Wentworth, new product commercial consultant at RJG laid out a common issue for many molders when starting a project, using a sports metaphor that was pretty apt. Many molders allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good in a way that weekend duffers can relate to.

“If in golf your expectation is a hole in one,” Wentworth said, “you’re likely going to fail if you’re trying to be perfect every time.” If your processing window is just the cup, you’re going to miss the vast majority of the time. If, however, you’re processing window is the entire green, and you can get on that green in one or two “shots”, while continuously improving and getting closer, your project is bound for more sustainable success.

The broader context of Wentworth’s presentation was RJG’s TZero program, which aims for good parts from a tool’s very first shots, and the company’s Hub offerings, which recently incorporated support for simulation programs, including Moldex3D.

Wentworth lamented the fact that far too often the loop between the simulation and analysis of a tool in a program like Moldex3D and a mold trial isn’t closed. Ideally, the analyst would be aware of the trial’s results and compare them to what the simulation program predicted.

“If you were analyzer on project, you wouldn’t always be aware of when a tryout is happening or be a part of it,” Wentworth says, “but this is best time to find out how well you did in virtual analysis.” The correlation between simulation and reality are not prioritized but both are hugely important to a successfully molded part.

“The more we work together, the closer we get to a hole in one, even though a hole in one is not possible every time. This isn’t something that we do alone, or Moldex can do alone, or anyone can do alone,” Wentworth said. “By empowering our partners and working together, we can certainly ensure the success of the industry and the folks working in it.”