Computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) techniques have not been widely applied to designing and manufacturing molds to create plastic or metal parts. Such molds continue to be designed by hand, and companies yearn for a system to automate, and thus speed and cheapen, the process. Here contributors from the National University of Singapore and the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology report on the current research and development. They discuss plastic injection mold design and assembly, intelligent mold design and assembly, semi-automated die casting die design, computer-aided die and mold manufacture, computer-aided process planning in mold making, early cost estimation of injection molds, and other topics. They also present case studies of intelligent mold design and assembly systems. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)