In The Hopper

New Hot Sprue Bushings Offer Superior Performance

Progressive’s BX Inch Series Hot Sprue Bushings are specially designed to advance previous Hot Sprue technology.  

The BX bushing's heater design and thermocouple placement provide excellent temperature distribution and thermal stability, resulting in consistent performance both at start-up and during production and increased reliability with easier maintenance. 

Key features include:

• Thermocouple positioned outside heater for easy replacement

• Heater design provides even temperature profile

• Optimal thermocouple location for excellent thermal stability

• Replaceable tips available carbide-tipped or nickel plated

Use them on existing tools by replacing cold sprues, inefficient hot sprues, or in applications used to feed cold runner systems. 

CLICK HERE for access to the catalog page PDF’s and CAD geometry.

Tap into Progressive’s Technical Application Review Services

Did you know that Progressive offers our customers one-on-one technical appli-cation reviews via its Tech Team?  We do, and you couldn’t be in better hands. 

Whether your tooling challenges revolve around molding plastic parts with threads or details normally requiring complex unscrewing or side action mechanisms, or you’re building high volume stack molds and could be benefited by bouncing thoughts off of an individual who has specialized in a particular niche, Progressive can help.

Randy Winton, Steve Johnson and Mike Biddle are on the road meeting with customers in person, while Lou Grupe, Ken Rumore and Wayne Hertlein support from Progressive's Headquarters. Together, the team has nearly two centuries of extensive and unique experience.

For example, Progressive’s StacKit® is a system for efficiently designing, building, and maintaining stack molds. There are many approaches for centering stack mold sections, but if you are new to this tooling type or looking for a new solution, our Tech Team can take the mystery out of quoting, building and maintaining these tools.

To access Progressive’s Tech Team for your company’s mold building benefit, call 1-800-269-6653 or email tech@procomps.com.

Support the Future of Manufacturing

It's Been Said...

Progressive systematically surveys customers, learning both what is being done right, and as well as where else to point our resources ahead. Recently we gathered the following experiences:

• Regarding Progressive’s Roller Pullers, Bob Stamper, CAD/CAM Engineer for A&O Mold & Engineering, told us, “We installed and used Roller Pullers on a four-cavity, 5-plate floating mold that we floated the B-side and the stripper plate on.  A dual ejection system was used. To date, the mold is performing without any issues, which is critical.  This is a mold for the automotive industry and I expect it will run for millions of cycles.” 

• Dan Ebert at A J Tool Co., Inc. had this to say about Progressive’s Collapsible Cores: “When you’re working with larger diameter parts, controlling the thermal expansion to avoid flashing and the ability to provide enough clearance for the unscrewing detail becomes a problem.  With a Collapsible Core we don’t have to worry about that.  They don’t care how many threads you have, and they’re quick and cost-effective. We love the convenience of this pre-engineered product.  You order it, modify it slightly and you’re on your way.  It’s faster and there’s no more flash.”

• Mike Armbrust at Mako Mold let us know our wide selection of Daters and Replacement plugs were of great value to his company: “With the challenges of meeting the many maintenance requirements of our tools, we rely on Progressive’s commitment to tooling maintenance and the wide variety of replacement components they offer, including the widest range of date plugs available. Progressive has it all.”

We’d appreciate hearing from you, too.  Tell us your Progressive story by sharing your experiences with our products and team members.  Email us at cyndi.kustush@procomps.com.  We look forward to hearing from you!

ProComper Profile

Ken Rumore, Design Engineer

Ken Rumore is no stranger to the tooling industry and his credentials prove out that statement.  He is a certified Die Maker, Die Designer, Mold Maker, Mold Designer and Tool Maker. 

Ken joined Progressive last year as Design Engineer, responsible for creating 2D and 3D CAD geometry and engineering drawings of our products, both for those that are currently available and for those in development.  Ken also helps provide engineering support of our products and their application to customers who call with questions. 

He says, “When I speak to customers, my experience in this industry makes me feel as if I know them all.” 

Ken feels his humble beginnings in metal stamping and mold making gave way to a wide range of experience in tooling and design. 

“Trouble shooting molds at trials gave me a lot of feedback to my design efforts and was a great learning experience,” he explains.  “I started pushing a pencil (for mold design) and to date have used almost every 3D software out there. I was fortunate to be one of the very first to use Pro Engineer for Mold design and CNC programming.” 

Call Ken with any engineering questions or challenges and he’ll be happy to assist.  He can be reached at 800-269-6653, or email him at Ken.Rumore@procomps.com.