QDS™ Makes Turnarounds PDQ

D-M-E recently expanded its QDS program to offer more sizes of American Standard mold bases, retainer sets and mold plates in both the A-Series and B-Series. Depending on the type, same-day, next-day, three-day or four-day shipping is available. For more information, download a brochure.

At AIMMco, quality quick-turn tooling and other advanced injection mold services are the crux of their business.

Based in Woodland, Wa., AIMMco operates two shifts and utilizes leading-edge technology to meet customers’ needs. And every day, AIMMco leverages D-M-E’s Quick Delivery Standards (QDS™) program for mold bases to help them deliver on tight turnarounds.

“We’re very engineering driven at AIMMco,” said Barry Waatti, partner. “We work with Delcam software, and QDS lends itself well to our design automation goals.” 

D-M-E customers who use the QDS system can choose from design templates for more than 3,800 popular mold base combinations, as well as comparably sized retainer sets and mold plates. Engineers can relocate or remove components, add special features and customize their designs in a variety of other ways. All the while, QDS helps ensure that each component is appropriately configured for quick delivery.

“With the QDS layouts, I know exactly where D-M-E is going to put certain components.  I don’t have to do anything to the design because I know they’re going to put it in the right spot automatically,” said AIMMco partner Glen Hendrickson.

Hendrickson further enhanced automation of the process by developing special software to match the QDS system. AIMMco’s Moldbuilder program has ready-made templates for the company’s standards that line up with the QDS parameters.

“It’s hard to measure how much time this saves. It eliminates mistakes,” he said. “I’d have to say it saves us five hours per project. Many steps are eliminated.”