M.R. Mold & Engineering (Brea, California)

Valeria Magadan, Technical Center Manager

Valeria came to M.R. Mold as a press operator but has become so much more in a short amount of time. She shows great potential for becoming an effective leader by always leading by example. She always lends a hand to her coworkers, looks for ways to gain more experience and expand her knowledge base, and takes on challenges beyond her original job description.

Valeria is a valuable asset in the testing center. She uses a variety of inspection equipment for checking molded product, developed procedures for parts handling and removal during production molding and participate in mold installations and removals. She also disassembles, cleans and reassembles cold runner systems, which has given her a better understanding of injection-mold construction.

Valeria seeks more responsibilities. Her ultimate goal is to learn processing. She is intrigued by moldmaking and sees the challenges of generating molding processes and preparing molds to be production-ready. Her strong work ethic, attention to detail and willingness to work with others make her a positive addition to the company.

Westminster Tool (Plainfield, Connecticut)

Micheal Belmont, Account Manager

Micheal has been at Westminster Tool since 2015 after receiving his degree in business administration from Sacred Heart University. He has contributed to our sales department's growth and increased his technical sales knowledge to better understand our customers' needs.

As the lead for quoting at Westminster Tool, Micheal is preparing 40 quotes on average each month and identifying potential projects. He has implemented major improvements to existing processes to deliver quotes to customers faster and begin projects sooner. For example, he developed a formal quoting checklist with a process-proven list of questions and parameters to address upfront with the customer.

He also developed “mini-processing” jobs, a practice that simulates all the production steps before any processing is performed, which reduced potential production delays and rework in the design phase and improved customer communication. Mini-processing goes through each step in the manufacturing process to predict production needs and mitigate potential risks. He has also been instrumental in improving the training and documentation for his role and our sales assistant position.  

Micheal understands the importance of building relationships and takes personal accountability for every project he works on by prioritizing customer collaboration. He is constantly looking for ways to innovate and improve. As a result, he has emerged as an effective leader in the sales department and made a lasting impact on how our company builds, maintains and grows customer relationships.

KTM Industries Inc. (Richfield, Wisconsin)

Rebecca Kluever, Program Manager

Rebecca was an honoree in MMT’s inaugural 30 Under 30 Honors Program in 2018 when she was a 21-year-old design engineer at Mantz Automation (Hartford, Wisconsin). She is now part of the KTM Industries team as a program manager. Her role uses her prior tooling, programming, design and organizational experiences to effectively manage customers’ development and production projects. Rebecca is responsible for integrating internal and supply partner resources and communicating project deliverables between the KTM mold shop and customer engineering. She continues her educational pursuits and has begun formal CNC programming training.

The last year has seen Rebecca spend most of her time at a KTM customer facility, coordinating an extensive new product development project. This experience has broadened her manufacturing perspective, as she has been involved with nearly every phase of the project.

Rebecca is a prime example of the opportunities available for the current and next generations in U.S.-based manufacturing. Combining her attitude, ambition and willingness to learn with work environments that support her growth will ensure she enjoys a successful career path.

YakAttack LLC (Farmville, Virginia)

Nick Kellogg, Engineering Manager

Six years ago Nick started at YakAttack as an entry-level manufacturing employee with no engineering experience. His first job was gauging and sorting non-conforming product. In less than two years, Nick was rapidly conquering a steep learning curve through an extreme engineering apprenticeship boot camp. Ownership realized he could do pretty much whatever he put his mind to, no matter how unlikely it seemed.

The company started injection molding about the time Nick came on board. Quickly realizing that the cost and leadtime of tooling was a major barrier with our low-volume market, the company ventured into making its own tooling on a Robodrill VMC and created a modular mold base with which they could create simple molds in less than a day for a few hundred dollars.

Four years ago, Nick fully transitioned into engineering. Within a year he assumed the position of engineering manager and has advanced the primitive tooling system significantly. He has designed and built over 200 molds, and manages a two-person team that currently builds 75-100 molds per year—simple line of draw molds, action molds and hot sprue molds.

Nick also purchases the shop’s heavy equipment, handling selection, installation and startup and training. In 2020, Nick purchased and started two Milacron Roboshot molding machines, the company’s  third Robodrill (with a fourth axis), a resin recycling line and a CNC EDM that is taking moldmaking capabilities to a new level.

Accede Mold & Tool Co. Inc. (Rochester, New York)

Kyle Joseph, Design Engineer and Project Manager

Kyle has been a design engineer and program manager at Accede Mold & Tool since May 2018. He started after graduating from Gannon University with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering.

He is currently managing 11 mold builds for the medical and consumer packaging industries, including multiple 24+24 stack molds and a 16+16 two-shot cube mold system. Customers are quick to praise Kyle for his excellent leadership and communication skills and steady project management style from design launch through mold install on their production floor.

Kyle embodies Accede’s culture of continuous improvement and moldmaking excellence. He is smart and conscientious, with strong attention to detail and a focus on quality. Kyle goes beyond his day-to-day responsibilities of mold design and project management. He is the internal champion and Accede representative for SPE while staying up-to-date on industry technology advancements and representing Accede at trade events.

Kyle can regularly be found on the shop floor, rolling up his sleeves to work side by side with experienced moldmakers, building and assembling the injection molds he designs. At just 25 years of age, Kyle’s competencies, initiative, drive and self-motivation are helping to make a difference in moldmaking as a leader and an innovator.

Edro Specialty Steels (Conshohocken, Pennsylvania)

Katherine Pistorius, Project Engineer

After graduating from Penn State with a degree in industrial engineering, Katherine joined Edro as an apprentice learning the fundamentals of the specialty steel industry. Her strong ambition for future growth, good work ethic, interest in innovation and determination were evident immediately.

During her three years with the company, Katherine has shown outstanding leadership potential, excellent communication skills and the ability to apply herself to various tasks and projects focused on mold steel production, internal manufacturing processes and distribution activities.

Katherine is currently working in a project engineer role, tasked with leading several key lean projects on improvement and waste reduction. She completed her Six Sigma Green Belt qualification.

Michael Muthoka, Project Engineer

Michael Muthoka has shown outstanding leadership potential, excellent communication skills and the ability to apply himself impressively to the tasks and responsibilities he has fulfilled during his four years with Edro.

After graduating from Penn State University with a degree in metallurgy, Michael joined Edro as an apprentice and immediately received an introduction to the fundamentals of the specialty steel industry. In his early days of employment, Michael contributed to the company in a meaningful way, focusing on his main apprenticeship project—machining evaluation of plastic mold steels.

Today, Michael’s main responsibility is plate production, including conversion and heat treatment. He has quickly become the company’s main contact at our major supply chain partner steel plate mills, converting mold steel ingots to plate. He is also responsible for production scheduling to support the company’s global material distribution business and plate conversion scheduling.

Michael possesses ambition for future growth, development, innovation, a strong work ethic, enthusiasm and determination.

Pyramid Molding Group, Industrial Molds Division (Rockford, Illinois)

Sasha Stojanovic, Mold Designer

Sasha learned how to overcome adversity at a young age, which molded him into a hardworking, dedicated young professional. He immigrated from Serbia to the U.S. in 2005 at the age of eight. English was not his native language, but he adapted by immersing himself in his education. As a senior in high school, Sasha’s mother passed away, and his father’s profession as a truck driver kept him away from home. Sasha balanced his grief while staying focused on his goals and learning how to deal with change and pressure.

Sasha remains driven. He completed his mechanical engineering degree from Northern Illinois University in 2019 and then joined the Industrial Molds engineering team. His strong work ethic, desire to succeed and professional demeanor became the benchmark for the type of young professionals Industrial Molds wants on the team. Sasha is the right mix of talent, hard work and dedication. He does whatever it takes to get the job done, and no task is beneath him.

Sasha is often the first to arrive and the last to leave. You will frequently find him on the shop floor working alongside our machinists and tool builders. Sasha is motivated to develop as much industry knowledge as possible. He inquires with insightful questions and is not afraid to ask when he needs more information.

Sasha has a sense of fearlessness for a young man. He is not afraid to offer his suggestions even with our most veteran employees. He has proven to “hold his own” concerning the types of projects he has completed during his tenure. One example of Sasha’s leadership and innovation was his gear strength calculator, which included the processes to calculate more efficiently.

Sasha quickly understands challenging concepts and applies what he has learned to every task. He has a clear focus on deliverables and demonstrates reliability with his attention to deadlines. Sasha’s goal is to become a master at moldmaking and design.

X-Cell Tool and Mold (Fairview, Pennsylvania)

Rob McMaster, Process Engineer

Rob is a graduate of the Penn State University Plastics Program and earned the RJG master molder 1 and 2 titles. He interned at X-Cell in 2020 before starting full-time upon his graduation. Rob took advantage of a unique opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge of mold sampling and validation for newly constructed plastic injection molds, preparing him to be very successful and a major contributor to the future of the plastics industry.

X-Cell builds multi-cavity, high-precision molds with complex actions for the medical device, consumer product, electronic and automotive sectors. X-Cell also samples its molds before shipping. This work exposes Rob to different engineering and commodity resins and additives like foaming, slip and nucleating agents and colors (pellet and liquid). He has also learned about mold designs that include actions and functions such as slides, lifters, hydraulic core pull, collapsible cores, unscrewing tools, servo actions, two-shot, in-mold closing and hot runners (hot tip, valve gate and sequential valve gate).

Currently, Rob performs scientific injection molding to establish centerline processes and runs design of experiments (DoEs) and validation protocols based on customer needs. Rob uses injection molding technologies such as Roctool induction mold heating, iMFLUX process, Mold Vac vacuum systems and sequential valve gate systems during product development and prototyping. Rob also contributes in the production area when he is not sampling new molds. Rob’s ability to sample any tool design with any material has made him a true asset to the X-Cell team.

Rob also reaches out to the local community by working with the Penn State New Kensington COMETS STEM Program for middle school students to get exposure to industry and manufacturing. COMETS supports and guides middle school students, mostly young girls, to develop impressions of their abilities in science, engineering, math and technology. This program is a fun and exciting way for students to discover the career pathways available to them in these fields and promote diversity in STEM-related fields, education and careers.

YakAttack LLC (Farmville, Virginia)

Patrick D-Antonio, Manufacturing Engineer

Seven years ago, Patrick was about to graduate high school and was looking for a summer job. YakAttack was small and in need of some extra help, so Patrick was hired. He quickly developed an affinity (and knack) for manufacturing, which has turned into an impressive career at the company.

After graduating high school, Ben pursued his four-year degree in mechanical engineering during which he split time between Old Dominion University and the shop floor. He earned his degree while spending the summers working on the manufacturing floor, and later as an intern in our the shop.

During his early years at YakAttack, Patrick loaded parts onto CNC routers and then learned programming. He started using various fixtures, then learned to design and build them. He helped to design and evolve the company’s manufacturing process.

Shortly after college graduation, Patrick went full-time at YakAttack, managing and streamlining the CNC routing operation. A year later, he turned his focus toward injection molding and moldmaking. Patrick helped to transform the company’s tooling art into a tooling process. Using his unique blend of creative and disciplined thinking, he refined and documented the company’s toolmaking process, making it comprehensible for a novice. He is currently training a young employee using the process that he was instrumental in creating.

Today, Patrick designs most of the molds and manages the tooling operation.

Matsuura USA (St. Paul, Minnesota)

Nicholas Mitchell, Application Engineer

Nicholas is an innovator and thought leader who is helping to shape the future of moldmaking and AM. He graduated from Dunwoody College of Technology, earning an Associate of Applied Science degree in engineering drafting and design. What separates Nicholas from the rest is his determination and resolve to be a part of emerging technology. He quickly realized how different and transformative 3D metal AM can be in moldmaking.

Nicholas initially learned about hybrid AM technology and moldmaking throughout his classwork, but then followed that up with researching Matsuura and its metal laser sintering/CNC milling hybrid technology. His interest grew and eventually led him to Matsuura’s internship program, where he generated fresh ideas in moldmaking and demonstrated enthusiasm to gain real-world experience.

As an intern, much of his role was taking work off our busy Matsuura Lumex Team’s plate to facilitate projects. Nick was doing the actual work and doing it well. We have the utmost trust in Nick, as he took the internship at Matsuura USA as seriously as he would a full-time job. Showing dedication, he always met deadlines and exceeded our goals.

Nick quickly realized how transformative 3D metal AM in moldmaking could be. He has become integral in training and supporting distributor engineers and customers in the operation and application of the Lumex product line within mold manufacturing. He empowers innovation by connecting with partners and customers to share information and collaborate. He is the first in the morning to arrive for a moldmaking project and the last to leave. He not only seeks to find the answer, but he also enjoys problem solving along the way.

He is continuing with his education and is a candidate for a B.S. in industrial engineering technology. Nick also earned his Certified Solidworks Associate (CSWA) certification, Certified Solidworks Professional (CSWP) certification, and certifications from the National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS, Fairfax, Virginia).

Tri-Par Die and Mold Corp. (South Elgin, Illinois)

Adem Talic, Apprentice Moldmaker

Adem found his passion in the world of manufacturing when he started producing zinc components on an A2 press machine. Although he liked this work, he quickly realized the importance of expanding his knowledge and skills if he wanted to excel and grow in machining. Because of this, he joined the Technology and Manufacturing Association (TMA, Schaumburg, Illinois) training program at his own expense. This training introduced Adem to the world of plastics and moldmaking.

He joined a mold shop apprenticeship program and quickly discovered that he wanted to learn more. After staying on for a year, he was given the opportunity to join Tri-Par Die and Mold’s program. Adem joined Tri-Par Die and Mold two years ago.

He has been an enthusiastic member of the moldmaking team with a can-do attitude. He has an eye for detail and continues to build up his skills. He enjoys the hands-on work of creating with a special interest in milling and grinding. Adem is also in the Army Reserves after joining in July 2019. He is well on his way to becoming a lead moldmaker.

Harbour Results (Southfield, Michigan)

Cara Walton, Engagement Manager

Cara has been a critical member of the Harbour Results team by helping to build a culture of inclusion, curiosity and customer service. She collaborates across the team to ensure we can help our clients and all those in the industry.

She is responsible for growing HRI’s Harbour I.Q. product, which was developed to provide moldmakers with data and insight to make intelligent business decisions. She is the main liaison with the Harbour I.Q. clients, ensuring they get access to the information they need.

Cara also built the organization’s economy/tariff/trade competency to ensure we know how these factors impact manufacturing today and tomorrow. She played an important role in the company’s effort to put tariffs back on China-made molds. We worked together gathering data and interviewing shops to help draft messages and case studies to share with key decision-makers within associations and local and national government.

Cara has positioned herself as a thought leader in the industry through one-on-one interactions, presentations, events and bylined articles.