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Avalon Vision Solutions is pleased to announce the promotion of Ricardo Castro from Service Engineer to Operations Manager, effective July 1, 2026.

Ricardo has been an integral part of Avalon Vision Solutions since joining the company in January 2005. During more than two decades with Avalon, he has played a vital role in installing systems, troubleshooting software, testing software upgrades, providing valuable feedback to improve Avalon’s solutions, and maintaining essential manuals and technical documentation.

Throughout his career, Ricardo has distinguished himself through his extensive knowledge, problem-solving ability, attention to detail, exceptional customer support, sound judgment, and natural leadership. His colleagues are enthusiastic about his promotion and fully supportive of his leadership in this new role.

“Ricardo has been a trusted and invaluable member of Avalon for more than 20 years,” said Ed Kachnic, founder and President of Avalon Vision Solutions. “His technical expertise, commitment to our customers, and willingness to support the team have contributed greatly to our success. He has earned the respect and confidence of everyone around him, and I am proud to support him as he takes on this important leadership role.”

As Operations Manager, Ricardo will oversee Avalon Vision Solutions’ day-to-day operations. His responsibilities will include managing and supporting the team, coordinating customer requests, helping address operational and technical needs, and ensuring Avalon continues to provide the high level of service and support its customers expect.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to take on this new role and continue growing with Avalon Vision Solutions,” said Castro. “Avalon has been an important part of my life for more than 20 years, and I am proud of the work our team has accomplished together. I look forward to supporting our employees, serving our customers, and helping guide Avalon into its next chapter.”

Please join us in congratulating Ricardo on this well-deserved promotion.

A “slide not returned” event is rarely random. Most of the time, it’s a repeatable mechanical problem—wear, debris, lubrication, timing drift, or return-force issues—that finally shows up as a near-miss… or mold damage.
This post gives you:
the most common root causes
early warning signs (before the crash)
a quick-check flow your team can use on the floor
and the highest-leverage prevention step: verify before mold close

When a slide, lifter, or moving core doesn’t return to its correct position, the next mold close can turn into an expensive failure - shutoff damage, broken lifters, cracked inserts, or worse.

The tricky part? Most “not returned” events are caused by small, repeatable issues that creep in over time - wear, contamination, timing drift, or inconsistent ejection mechanics.

This guide covers:

what “not returned” really means,

the hidden causes that create mold damage,

the warning signs your team can catch early,

and the best prevention move: verify before mold close.

Parts that stick, on the core, in the cavity, on lifters, or on ejector pins, aren’t just a nuisance. They’re a cycle-time killer and a common path to scrap spikes, ejection damage, and “close-on-part” mold crashes.

This guide covers:

the most common causes of stuck parts,

the warning signs teams miss,

and a practical prevention checklist—with a focus on reducing risk before mold close.

Insert molding is one of the best ways to combine plastic and metal into one robust part. It’s also one of the fastest ways to create scrap - or worse - tooling damage.

When an insert is missing, doubled, misaligned, or not fully seated, the next mold close can turn into a crash. This article covers the most common insert molding defects, what causes them, how to prevent them, and how vision verification can help you stop crunching molds before damage happens.

Flash in injection molding is one of the most common defects in injection molding. It occurs when molten plastic escapes the mold cavity and solidifies along mold interfaces such as the parting line, ejector pins, inserts, or slides. For molding teams, flash creates several immediate problems: additional trimming or secondary operations, increased scrap rates, dimensional variation, or potential tooling wear or damage. Flash typically indicates that cavity pressure or mold conditions have moved outside the process window. Identifying the root cause quickly is critical to restoring stable production.

Short shots in injection molding are one of the most common and frustrating defects.

They occur when the mold cavity is not completely filled, leaving portions of the molded part incomplete. The result can be unusable parts, increased scrap rates, and production delays.

For injection molding managers, the challenge is not just fixing short shots after they occur. The real goal is detecting them early and understanding what caused them so the process can be corrected before production losses escalate.

In the world of injection molding and die-casting, ensuring product quality and preventing costly defects are top priorities. Machine vision systems play a crucial role in achieving these goals by providing automated inspection, detecting defects, and improving overall efficiency. However, choosing the right machine vision system for your molding operation requires careful consideration of several key factors. Here’s what you need to know.

In manufacturing, downtime is more than just a temporary inconvenience—it’s a costly disruption that can significantly impact productivity, profitability, and customer satisfaction. Injection molding and die-casting operations, in particular, are vulnerable to unplanned downtime caused by mold damage, defective parts, and equipment failures. Investing in preventative vision inspection can help minimize these risks, ensuring smooth and efficient production.

In the world of injection molding, machine vision technology is transforming mold protection, ensuring efficiency, precision, and cost savings. For decades, Avalon Vision Solutions has been at the forefront of vision mold protection technology. The company’s advanced MoldWatcher™ system provides a cutting-edge solution that prevents catastrophic mold failures by leveraging non-contact vision technology. MoldWatcher™ detects potential issues before they escalate, saving manufacturers from costly repairs and unplanned downtime.

Avalon Vision Solutions provides a wide range of injection mold protection solutions tailored to the needs of the injection molding and die cast industries, aimed at preventing CARs. Our flagship product, MoldWatcher, automatically inspects for insertsv

In 2022 Avalon introduced its ThermalWatch thermal imaging system to provide provide consistent, 100% cycle inspection of the thermal characteristics of molded parts and mold components. These measurements can be used to fine tune a process during startup and/or to provide continuous measurement to ensure that the process remains within specifications.