From Inconsistency to Efficiency: Rethinking Mold Concept for High-Volume Sports Vehicle
Overview: How TIBO’s Re-engineering Doubled Productivity and Stabilized a Complex High-volume Mold.
A leading automotive OEM faced persistent inconsistency with a 16-cavity injection mold – unbalanced flow, part deformation, and frequent cleaning caused by polyurethane resin degradation.
TIBO’s engineering team redefined the tooling through a complete system redesign, optimizing injection balance, ejection performance, and surface coating.
The result: a faster, cleaner, and more reliable mold that reduced cycle time from 60 to 30 seconds, doubled productivity, and ensured consistent high-volume output.
Challenge: High-Volume Production, Low Process Stability
When a leading OEM vehicle manufacturer asked TIBO to replicate a 16-cavity mold for high-volume output, the objective was clear – reproduce capacity, improve reliability, and meet growing market demand.
A full engineering review revealed that the existing tooling suffered from:
- Unbalanced injection, producing short shots and flash.
- An extremely narrow molding window, limiting stability and control.
- Complex de-molding, causing deformation and adhesion.
- Frequent cleaning interruptions, driven by an engineering-grade polyurethane resin (PU-Texin 255D) that degraded quickly and created stickiness.
These issues made production unpredictable and resource-intensive, undermining throughput and profitability.
TIBO’s Engineering Approach: Seeing the Mold as a System
Rather than applying isolated fixes, TIBO approached the challenge holistically – viewing the mold as an interconnected system requiring balance, precision, and process intelligence.
Using simulation-driven design, manufacturing, and hands-on production expertise, TIBO redefined the concept around three strategic priorities:
- Injection configuration - achieving perfect flow balance and consistency to stabilize injection and ensure cavity-to-cavity uniformity.
- Ejection layout - delivering flawless performance for smoother, deformation-free de-molding.
- Product and mold surface coating - enhancing release, reducing cleaning frequency, and extending tool life.
This systems-level rethinking harmonized design, material behaviour, and process into a single, reliable platform.
Implementation: Engineering Intelligence in Action
TIBO’s cross-disciplinary team aligned tooling geometry, ejection mechanics, and surface treatments under one guiding principle: stability first.
The resulting concept achieved:
- Faster cycles, with consistent performance under demanding resin conditions.
- Reduced maintenance, thanks to cleaner de-molding and enhanced surface finishes.
- Consistent quality output, with fewer adjustments and less operator intervention.
By transforming an unstable tool into a balanced system, TIBO enabled the client’s production team to scale efficiently and confidently.
Results: Proven Performance at Scale
After validation, the new mold delivered measurable gains:
- Cycle time reduced from 60 to 30 seconds-doubling productivity.
- 1.45 million parts produced annually (16 per vehicle).
- Marked drop in downtime and rejection rates.
- A wider molding window, allowing faster, easier start-ups.
These improvements enhanced equipment utilization, boosted availability, and increased profitability.
Conclusion: Engineering Stability by Design
The redesigned 16-cavity mold proves that true innovation emerges from integration.
By re-imagining the mold as a harmonized system rather than isolated parts, TIBO delivered a solution that runs faster, cleaner, and more predictably empowering manufacturers to produce at scale without compromise.
Accelerating the industry’s time to market through engineering intelligence and smart design.
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