Summary of the development trend of the hottest mo

Overview of the development trend of mold industry

I. Introduction

revitalizing and developing China's mold industry has increasingly attracted people's attention and attention. "Mold is the basic process equipment of industrial production" has also reached a consensus. In electronics, automobiles, motors, electrical appliances, instruments, meters, home appliances, communications and other products, 60% - 80% of the parts must rely on mold forming. The high precision, high complexity, high consistency, high productivity and low consumption of parts produced with molds are unmatched by other processing and manufacturing methods. Mold is also a "benefit amplifier". The value of the final product produced with mold is often dozens of times or hundreds of times of its own value. At present, the annual output value of mold industry in the world is about 60billion US dollars. The output value of mold industry in Japan, the United States and other industrial developed countries has exceeded that of machine tool industry. Since 1997, the output value of mold industry in China has also exceeded that of machine tool industry

now, we should pay special attention to the fact that the decision on strengthening technological innovation, developing high technology and realizing industrialization issued by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on August 20, 1999 clearly puts forward the field of high-tech industry. The decision points out that technological innovation should be strengthened in the fields of electronic information, especially integrated circuit design and manufacturing, networking and communication, computers and software, digital electronic products, biotechnology, new medicine, new technology, new energy, aerospace, marine and other high-tech industries with a certain foundation, so as to form a large number of high-tech industries with independent intellectual property rights and competitive advantages. The decision also points out that we should strengthen the technological upgrading of traditional industries, pay attention to the grafting of electronic information and other technologies with traditional industries, and greatly improve the level of domestic technology and equipment. Before the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the above-mentioned "decision", in July 1999, the State Planning Commission and the Ministry of science and Technology issued the "Guide (directory) for the current national priority development of key areas of high-tech industrialization". The "guide" included special electronic tools and moulds, new plastic forming technology and equipment, rapid prototyping manufacturing process and complete sets of equipment, laser processing technology and complete sets of equipment, key auto parts, etc. For example, using rapid prototyping manufacturing technology and equipment, layered solid stacking and other methods can transform complex CAD models into physical objects, greatly shorten the design, evaluation and manufacturing cycle of molds and products, and enterprises can quickly seize the market and gain competitive advantage

II. Current situation of mold industry

due to the closed and "large and comprehensive" enterprise characteristics formed for historical reasons, most enterprises in China have mold workshops, which are in the supporting position of the factory. The concept of mold industrialization and production specialization has been developed since the late 1970s. The main production capacity of the mold industry is scattered in the tool and mold workshops in the main product factories of various departments, and the molds produced are basically self-produced and used by themselves. According to rough estimates, the mold production capacity of the product factory accounts for 75% of the national mold production capacity. Their equipment level is good, their technical force is strong, and their production potential is large, but they mainly serve our products, have less contact with the market, and their business mechanism is not flexible, so they cannot give full play to the potential of human and material resources. There are only about 200 professional mold factories nationwide, and the commodity mold only accounts for about 20% of the total, and the commodity rate of mold standard parts is less than 20%. Due to the deep influence of the old management system and the lack of overall planning and organization coordination, there are structural defects of "medium and comprehensive" and "small and comprehensive", low production efficiency and poor economic benefits

the production of mold industry is small and scattered, cross industry, investment intensive, and the level of specialization, commercialization and technical management are relatively low. The development of modern industry requires that products from all walks of life should be updated quickly, and the demand for molds should be increased. Generally, molds can be made domestically, but many large, complex, precise and long-life multi station progressive molds, large-scale precision plastic molds, complex die-casting molds and auto panel molds still need to be imported. In recent years, the import volume of molds has exceeded the total sales volume of commodity molds produced domestically. In order to promote socialist modernization and meet the needs of the development of various departments of the national economy, the mold industry is facing the heavy task of further technical restructuring and accelerating localization

over the past 20 years of reform and opening up, China's mold industry (except Hong Kong and Taiwan, the same below) has achieved rapid development, and the design, manufacturing and processing capacity and level, product grade have been greatly improved. According to incomplete statistics, there are nearly 17000 professional mold manufacturers and mold workshops (branches) supporting product factories in China, with about 600000 employees, and the total annual mold output value reaches 20billion yuan. However, the existing capacity of China's mold industry can only meet about 60% of the demand, which can not meet the needs of national economic development. At present, the domestic demand for large, precision, complex and long-life molds also mainly rely on imports. According to customs statistics, the value of imported molds in 1997 was 630million US dollars, which does not include molds imported with the equipment; In 1997, the export of molds was only 78million US dollars. In 1997, the statistical data of China Mold Industry Association on 209 subordinate backbone enterprises (including mold workshops of product factories) showed that their total mold output value was 1.37 billion yuan, and the imported mold was about 3.36 million US dollars. At present, the technological level and manufacturing capacity of China's mold industry are the weak links in China's national economic construction and the bottleneck restricting the sustainable development of the economy

1. The current situation of the product structure of the mold industry

according to the classification of China mold industry association, China's molds are basically divided into 10 categories, of which, stamping molds and plastic molding molds account for the main part, which can also extend the service life of equipment. In terms of output value, at present, China's stamping dies account for about 50%, plastic forming dies account for about 20%, and wire drawing dies (tools) account for about 10%, but our firm commitment to customers and meeting their needs will not change%, while the proportion of plastic forming dies in developed industrial countries and regions in the world generally accounts for more than 40% of the output value of all molds

most stamping dies in China are simple dies, single process dies and coincidence dies. There are few precision stamping dies and precision multi station progressive dies. The average life of the dies is less than 1million times, the maximum life of the dies is more than 100million times, and the accuracy is 3 ~ 5um. There are more than 50 progressive stations. Compared with the highest die life of 600million times and the average die life of 50million times in the world, it is at the international advanced level in the mid-1980s

the design and manufacturing technology of plastic forming dies in China started relatively late, and the overall level is still low. At present, more than 70% of the molds with single cavity and simple cavity are still dominant. The first mock examination multi cavity precision and complex plastic injection mold, multi-color plastic injection mold has been able to preliminary design and manufacture. The average service life of the mold is about 800000 times. The main differences are large deformation of mold parts, large edge overflow and burr, poor surface quality, serious erosion and corrosion of mold cavity, poor mold exhaust and cavity vulnerability. The accuracy of the injection mold has reached below 5um, the maximum service life has exceeded 20million times, and the number of cavities has exceeded 100, reaching the international advanced level from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s

2. Current situation of technological structure of mold industry

the current technological level of China's mold industry is uneven, with great disparities. Generally speaking, compared with the advanced level of developed industrial countries and Hong Kong and Taiwan regions, there is still a large gap

there is a big gap in the application of cad/cam/cae/capp and other technologies in the design and manufacturing of molds, both in the universality of application and in the technical level. In the aspect of using CAD technology to design molds, only about 10% of molds adopt CAD in the design, which is still a long way from leaving the drawing board behind; In the application of CAE in mold scheme design and analysis and calculation, it is just beginning, and most of it is still in the stage of trial and animation games; In the application of CAM technology in mold manufacturing, first, there is a lack of advanced and applicable manufacturing equipment. Second, the existing process equipment (including the advanced equipment introduced in recent 10 years) or due to different computer systems (IBM microcomputer and its compatible machine, HP workstation, etc.), or due to byte differences, calculation speed differences, anti electromagnetic interference ability differences, etc., the connection rate is low. Only about 5% of mold manufacturing equipment have carried out this work in recent years; In the application of CAPP technology to process planning, it is basically blank, and a lot of standardization basic work is needed; The application of cad/cam technology in mold common process technology, such as mold rapid prototyping technology, polishing technology, electroforming technology, surface treatment technology and so on, has just started in China. The software development of computer-aided technology is still at a low level, which requires the accumulation of knowledge and experience. The mold processing equipment in most mold factories and workshops in China is old, with long service life, poor accuracy and low efficiency. Up to now, ordinary forging, turning, milling, planing, drilling and grinding equipment are still used to process molds, and salt baths and box furnaces are still used for heat treatment processing. The operation is based on the experience of workers, with simple equipment and high energy consumption. The equipment is updated slowly, and the technical transformation and technical progress are not strong. Although many advanced mold processing equipment have been introduced in recent years, they are too scattered or not matched, the utilization rate is generally only about 25%, and some advanced functions of the equipment have not been brought into full play

there is a lack of mold design and manufacturing process technicians and technical workers with high technical quality, especially compound talents with wide knowledge range and high knowledge structure level. The technicians in China's mold industry account for only about 8% to 12% of the employees, and the overall technical level of technicians and skilled workers is also low. The knowledge of technicians and skilled workers employed before 1980 is aging, and the knowledge structure cannot meet the current needs; However, the employees after the 1980s are lack of professional knowledge and experience, poor practical ability, uneasy and unwilling to learn technology. In recent years, brain drain has not only led to the decline in the number and quality of talents, but also the emergence of new faults in the talent structure, which makes it difficult to improve the technical level of mold design and manufacturing

3. Supporting materials for the mold industry and the current situation of the structure of standard parts

in the past 10 years, especially since the eighth five year plan, the relevant national ministries and commissions have organized relevant material research institutes, colleges and universities and iron and steel enterprises for many times to research and develop special series of steel grades for molds, special cemented carbide for molds and other special tools and auxiliary materials for mold processing, and have promoted them. but