Ref: GTMAPR21/290502/May 02
Release: IMMEDIATE

E-MOULD PROJECT FORGES AHEAD

Worcester and Lisbon events mark significant progress

The GTMA's second Technology Day, part of the EU funded emould@work project, focused on supply chain collaboration and was hosted by Yamazaki Machinery in Worcester. Over 30 mouldmakers and their suppliers attended the event, which was opened by GTMA Tooling Technologies Chairman, Glynn Fletcher.

The presentation, given by lead project member, Delcam, introduced two existing software products: PS-Team, an information management system; and PS-Moldmaker which includes design automation wizards specifically for mould-making. The interactive workshop highlighted issues that hinder mould-makers and their supply chains from working optimally. Five issues were prioritised:

• world-class competitiveness
• data quality
• capacity availability
• specification changes
• data exchange

The next stage of the project is to seek input from the rest of the supply chain. Stuart Watson, Delcam's CAD director commented, "The feedback we received was extremely useful and we shall be making contact with OEMs, moulders, designers and suppliers over the next two months as we seek to develop practical solutions."

The emould@work project made further progress at a meeting, hosted by Tracy International at their Lisbon offices, where participants from Delcam, the GTMA, Whitehead Precision Engineering and ARRK joined overseas colleagues, including Portuguese mouldmakers Moldecar and members of Ascamm, the Spanish equivalent of the GTMA, for a detailed discussion of the bottlenecks that occur in the mouldmaking process. GTMA Executive Manager, Julia Moore sums up, "All the participants were delighted with the success of these two meetings, which demonstrated conclusively, not only the degree of member interest in the topics but also the progress that has already been made towards achieving the project's objectives."

ENDS

Note to editors:
The GTMA, the UK's leading Trade association representing, tool making, metrology, precision machining, rapid product development and tooling technologies, is a focal point for technology transfer, as well as providing legal and business support to its members. The association has developed a series of World Class engineering standards, in addition to many EU funded projects, technology seminars and training initiatives.

emould@work, is part of the EUREKA pan-European initiative for promoting collaborative research in advanced technology. It is a major new project, with activity also taking place in Spain and Portugal, to research and develop software to provide significant time, cost and quality benefits through on-line mould-making project management, as well as automating mould design and manufacture. The aim of the project is to remove barriers between members of the supply chain and improve communication, speed up projects, reduce mistakes and improve profitability.

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