Are You a Hot-Shot Molder? Test Your Skills Against Your Peers

“Gamification” is a trending new term for making tasks into games. Paulson Training Programs is putting that concept into practice with its new monthly SimTech Injection Molding Challenge. Each month for the next six months, Paulson Training will present a part to be molded, involving varying degrees of difficulty. Each molding challenge will be devised by company founder and chairman Don Paulson. Using Paulson’s online SimTech training tool, which simulates the control panel of an injection molding machine, participants will determine the correct machine settings that produce a part that meets specifications without defects. After each simulated molding cycle, SimTech tells the user the resulting part quality and cycle time.

The Challenge will be open for one week a month, starting this month. The way you win points is by achieving a short cycle time and by getting to a solution with the fewest cycle iterations. It’s free, and after six months, the participant(s) with the most points will be eligible for $3000 worth of training from Paulson. (One Wisconsin molder that uses Paulson’s training programs reportedly will offer an additional $10,000 to any of its own employees that win the Challenge.) Meanwhile, bragging rights will be conferred by point scores of participants to be posted on Paulson’s website.

“This isn’t for beginners in molding,” says Karen Paulson, president of Paulson Training. You need to use your skills in molding to set up the process to mold each Challenge part. If you get stumped, you can ask for “hints”—but they are deducted from your point score. To find out if you’re up to it, you can run the Paulson’s “Starter Challenge” just for practice. It will be open for the duration of the Challenge program. Some 30 to 40 molders have already taken the Starter Challenge to flex their muscles for the real thing coming soon.