Matsuura’s Director of LUMEX, NA, Tom Houle, will present ‘Rapid Employing Metal Additive to Supercharge Your Injection Mold Tooling’ at RAPID + TCT, September 14^th at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL.

Celebrating its 30th year in 2021, RAPID + TCT has defined the crucial role of additive manufacturing and empowered the establishment of an industry that continues to conceive, test, improve and manufacture new products at a faster, more cost-efficient pace.

Using multiple case studies, Houle’s presentation will focus on the benefits and use cases for metal AM in the injection molding industry.  The presentation will highlight benefits starting with the design of the plastic injection mold all the way through the entire process through the quality of the Injection molded component.  It will also present the value-proposition for the tooler, molder, and OEM in injection molding programs.  Using industry standard calculations, the talk will present the monetary benefits to all three stakeholders in the Injection molding life cycle.

Houle’s presentation will focus on the many advantages that 3D cooling channels, porous structures and metal hybrid techniques have in improving the injection mold building and processing disciplines.  The talk will provide real-world examples of how utilizing conformal cooling has drastically reduced the cost of manufacturing on injection molded components.  It will provide return on investment (ROI) calculations for delegates to use as they begin to incorporate this technology into their molding operations.

Learning Objectives:

• Clearly identify the technical and financial benefits of employing metal Am in their molding process
• Evaluate if the potential cost and quality improvements are significant enough to your customers to improve a company’s value proposition
• Evaluate the many AM platforms and choose the one suited to your business situation

Matsuura Machinery USA, Inc.’s Tom Houle is an experienced Manufacturing Professional with a demonstrated history of success in the tooling and plastics industry. He is skilled in new product development, Program Management, Sales and Business development, new Technology adoption and Manufacturing systems and experienced with in-mold sensing and monitoring to measure mold and part performance. Houle has nearly 30 years of continuing experience in the injection mold and molding industry developing turn-key projects for customers all around the globe.

In his role as Director, LUMEX NA for Matsuura USA, Houle leverages his experience in operational excellence and continues to develop a cutting-edge, innovative U.S. presence for Matsuura’s Hybrid AM Manufacturing solution.  He inspires a culture of continuous improvement by defining goals, developing strategies, implementing systems and measuring performance results for the LUMEX product.

Houle has more than 30 years of experience in the mold industry, new product development, engineering solutions, along with his interpersonal skills, business acumen and a passion for manufacturing solutions shows in his passion for the Matsuura LUMEX technology.

Houle earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

Matsuura Machinery USA, Inc., located in St. Paul, MN is the U.S. subsidiary of Matsuura Machinery Corporation in Japan. Since 1935, Matsuura has been the forerunner in designing innovative technology and manufacturing solutions to a variety of industries around the globe. Matsuura Machinery USA, Inc. delivers unmatched excellence in 5-axis, vertical, horizontal, linear motor, multi-tasking CNC machine tools and machines with a powder bed metal AM platform with machining capability. Matsuura Machinery USA, Inc. provides the service, applications and technical field support that have always been the Matsuura standard for business. For more information on the Matsuura LUMEX and LUMEX Production Services, please visit: https://www.matsuurausa.com/lumex-production-services/.