The quality of a mold has a direct impact on the quality of parts produced from the mold. High quality molds are often required for creating composite parts because the mold determines the shape, dimensional accuracy, and surface finish of the part. 

The basic shape of a mold can be classified as male, female, or closed and can contain positive, negative, and zero draft angles. The draft angle of a mold will determine how easily a part can be separated from a mold, with positive draft angles being desirable.

Multi-section molds may be required for large parts or parts with complicated geometry. 

Molds contain features and structures beyond just the tooling surface where the composite part makes contact with the mold. These additional features can aid in different aspects of the manufacturing process such as mold assembly, vacuum bagging, demolding, or part trimming.