Injection mold advanced manufacturing technology development trend

In modern mechanical manufacturing engineering, one very important industry is the injection mold industry, and many new product development and production are mainly based on mold manufacturing technology, especially in the fields of automobile, light industry, electronics and aerospace industry.

Mold manufacturing technology is in a stage of rapid change, the future development will rely more on the deep application of intelligent, automation and green manufacturing technology. At the same time, the global market competition is becoming more and more intense, enterprises need to make continuous efforts in technological innovation and quality improvement to maintain competitiveness.

Development situation

At present, many countries, especially some countries with rapid economic development and advanced technology, pay great attention to mold manufacturing technology research and development, and actively promote the development of the injection mold manufacturing industry, the extensive use of a variety of technologies and advanced equipment to improve and optimize the mold manufacturing process, and thus improve the quality of mold development.

Among them, the injection molding process mold mold technology has ordinary injection molds, inverted injection molds, three-plate molds, in-mold transfer injection molds, stacked molds, two-color injection molds, low-pressure injection molds, high-gloss injection molds, as well as micro-foam injection molds.

Interdisciplinary and many related fields of application

Mold technology development is the key to the development of the mold industry, including interdisciplinary and many related areas of application. Specifically including the following aspects:

1.Mechanical Engineering

Processing and manufacturing: mold technology needs to be combined with machining processes, such as CNC machining, wire-cutting, EDM, milling, turning, etc.

Material selection: it involves the study of the characteristics and processing performance of materials such as die steel, aluminum alloy and copper alloy.

2.Material Science

Metal materials: mold making usually requires high-strength, wear-resistant metal materials.

Polymer materials: molds are mainly applied to plastic molding, which requires knowledge of the plastic’s fluidity, thermal conductivity and other characteristics.

Composite materials: used in the manufacture of special molds or complex shaped parts.

3.Industrial design

Product design: the design of the mold needs to be customized according to the product structure, appearance and functional requirements.

User experience: In order to meet ergonomic requirements, industrial design principles may need to be referred to in mold design.

4.Computer Science

CAD/CAE/CAM: Computer-aided design, simulation analysis and processing programming are widely used in mold design and processing.

Numerical simulation: The flow behavior of materials in the mold cavity is analyzed through fluid simulation and heat conduction simulation.

5.Electronic technology

Intelligent molds: Molds with integrated sensors and control systems can monitor parameters such as pressure and temperature in real time to improve yield.

Electrical control: Mold forming equipment (e.g., injection molding machines, die casting machines) needs to work with the mold system.

6. Chemical Engineering

Polymer chemistry: involves the relationship between the molecular structure and properties of polymer materials in the injection and blow molding process.

Coating technology: through chemical coating technology to enhance the mold wear resistance, corrosion resistance.

7.Physics

Thermodynamics: mold design involves the coefficient of thermal expansion of materials, thermal conductivity.

Mechanical analysis: the mold must withstand high pressure, involving mechanical stress and deformation calculation.

8.Automation and Robotics

Automated production: mold technology is combined with automated equipment to maximize production efficiency.

Injection molding robots: for product pickup, assembly, etc.

9.Management Science

Project Management: Mold development requires coordination of multiple aspects of design, manufacturing and delivery.

Cost control: Balancing quality, delivery time and cost in the mold development process.

10.Environmental Science

Green Manufacturing: Research on how to reduce material waste and energy consumption by optimizing mold design.

Sustainable Materials: Explore the application of environmentally friendly plastics and renewable resources in molds.

As a production tool, mold technology is widely used in automotive manufacturing, home appliances, medical devices, aerospace, consumer electronics and other industries, and its interdisciplinary use significantly improves production efficiency and product quality.

Advanced technology of computer processing-assisted machining

1.Highly efficient mold processing technology

Basically all mold processing uses a microcomputer control computer program, its system must be very reliable, each functional system should be configured with a standard program model.

The main processes of mold processing can be divided into rough milling, tempering heat treatment, fine milling, EDM, fine milling, high-speed milling, drilling, deep hole drilling, grinding machine, mold, and surface corrosion texture.

Of course, these are inseparable from the advanced processing technology and equipment, such as mirror spark machine, five-axis high-speed milling, profiling drilling and surface corrosion texture laser engraving, etc., but each processing technology basically can not be separated from the computer-aided design and programming control.

2.High-speed CNC grinding manufacturing technology

High-speed spindle use needs to maintain high-speed dynamic balance, and can be equipped with electric balance system or electro-hydraulic balance system.

High-speed CNC grinding machine has many advantages, such as large grinding volume, high dynamic accuracy, high vibration resistance and stability, etc., the whole process requires a combination of high automation and high reliability.

High-speed CNC grinding wheels require high mechanical strength, must be fast and absolutely reliable, and also have high bond strength and wear resistance to further reduce the degree of wheel wear.

3.Three-dimensional control mold design, evaluation and manufacturing technology

The previous two-sided mold design can not gradually meet the modern high-tech production and technology integration standard requirements; for mold design program evaluation, identification and diversified production needs of advanced technology, and electronic data and information requirements for the design of the need for more advanced mold for processing and production, but also has a three-dimensional clear visual quality to simulate the mold parts production process.

Used to deal with three-dimensional program control data process modeling software is now successfully used in industrial design data analysis, mold condition assessment and digital control of the cutting process, to generate a simulation of the appearance of the program, but also message integration and processing.

4.3D Cavity and Mirror EDM Integration

When parts are finished using EDM, very little discharge energy and clearance is required to process them. As a result, when the processing area is large, a large parasitic capacitance is formed between the working area and the electrode, a concentrated discharge occurs, and the quality of the surface machining finish deteriorates even more.

Therefore, a method of adding a solid fine powder to a general kerosene working medium is used to increase the distance between the final electrodes, reduce the capacitance effect and increase the dispersion of the discharge path to accurately form a three-dimensional cavity in the mold and mirror EDM integration.

Technology Development Trends

1.In the network trend of mold software applications

With the development of globalization, mold enterprises in competition, cooperation, production and management of rapid development. In such a social context, the mold industry in the virtual design and flexible production technology is very necessary.

The United States in the “21st Century Manufacturing Enterprise Strategy”, said that as of 2006, will be the automotive industry for the rapid production of the implementation of three virtual engineering solutions, and automotive development time from 40 months into 4 months.

The latest integrated system includes mathematical and geometric modeling, reverse engineering, diverse industrial design, simulation, rapid prototyping, CNC programming, and standardized measurement and analysis;

Each functional module of the system can work independently, but also through the data interface with other systems compatible with the work, the real realization of specialization and openness unity.

2.Integrated mold digital control software functions

Mold manufacturing process of digital control software integration function so that the software management module is relatively comprehensive, can provide resources and information integration and sharing, and then each module function corresponds to the structure of the corresponding mold design.

The same parameter model can be used for different functional modules; the entire product manufacturing process of mold product design and assembly, performance verification, operational testing and control of the entire production process to achieve the goal of maximum operating profit.

For example, a complete set of British companies mold manufacturing enterprise management software, it can be used for the production of molds, the surface structure of the workpiece, the workpiece three-dimensional shape, complex structural design solutions, engineering design and plastic mold design to form an intelligent control system.

Mold manufacturing can also be used for engraving process modeling design, its reverse production process as well as on-site monitoring system has a very big benefit, and in today’s world there are many automotive manufacturers have been regarded as active mold manufacturing engineering software.

3.Intelligent mold software trends

The use of a new generation of mold software and CAD modeling is no longer an imitation of traditional design and calculation methods, but rather the use of advanced design theory and casting expert guidance and a wealth of knowledge and successful experience from each other, and to overcome the limitations of a particular mold designers and operators.

With the help of artificial intelligence, CAI and other methods, scientific rationalization of design can be further realized;

The whole process, from design, research and analysis, evaluation of expectations to the production process in practice, can be fully automated;

In addition, production-oriented knowledge-based intelligence functions are key indicators for assessing the usability of mold software.

Conclusion

In the modern society of high-speed development of science and technology, advanced mold manufacturing technology enables the mold industry to continue to promote the development of information technology and control technology, the integrated and systematic application of these technologies in all steps of mold production, so that it is applicable to all mold manufacturing process. Further realize the mold high quality and flexible production, so that the whole production process efficiency is reduced.