China's mold industry is facing a good opportunity for rapid rise

The mold industry is an important area of ​​high-tech industrialization. In recent years, China's mold industry has developed rapidly. The mold industry has moved from relying on imported subsidiary industries to independent new industries. The world mold production center is also being transferred to China. China has become a big country in mold production and consumption. In the new investment of mold enterprises, the investment in processing equipment accounts for 80%. According to statistics, in 2010 China's total mold sales reached about 112 billion yuan, an increase of more than 14% over the previous year, and the country's mold equipment market has exceeded 4 billion yuan, and it is still growing at a rate of about 20% each year. This shows that China's mold industry in the post-crisis period has achieved a good recovery of growth, the growth rate has re-advanced to a double digit.

Although China's total mold production has ranked first in the world, and there are many mold enterprises. According to China's industrial census data in 2008, there are about 30,000 mold manufacturing companies (plants, factories) in the country, and nearly 1 million employees, including mold manufacturing. There are more than 2,800 enterprises in the industry with a total income of over 5 million yuan, and more than 400,000 employees. However, the level of mold design and manufacturing is generally lower than those of Germany and the United States. The concrete manifestations are: molds with low technological content have been oversupply, while high-tech molds with medium and high-grade molds are far from meeting the needs of national economic development, such as Precision and complex stamping dies and plastic molds, car cover molds, electronic connectors and other electronic products molds and other high-end molds are still a large part of imports. Mr. Liu Depu, Vice Chairman and Secretary General of the Shanghai Mould Industry Association, pointed out in his article “The Status and Development of China's Mould Industry” that nine reasons for the backwardness of Chinese dies.

First, the total supply exceeds demand, and there is a lack of high-grade molds;

Second, the organizational structure, product structure, technical structure, and import and export structure of the company are not reasonable;

Third, the level of mold products is lower than the international level, but the production cycle is higher than the international level;

Fourth, poor development capability and poor economic efficiency;

Fifth, the state's policy support for the mold industry needs to be strengthened;

Sixthly, there is a serious shortage of talents, and too little research and development and technological research are invested.

Seventh, the level of technological equipment is not high, the matching is not good, and the utilization rate is low;

Eighth, the degree of specialization, standardization, commercialization is low, and the coordination ability is poor;

Nine is the backward technology of mold materials and molds.

In the face of problems and inadequacies, Wang Jinling, deputy secretary-general of the International Mould and Hardware and Plastics Industry Suppliers Association, believes that China's mold enterprises should unite, work together, share resources, and achieve a technological leap. She said that if enterprises have a clear division of labor, implementation of industry self-regulation and establishment of a price system for fair competition, rather than lower prices and vicious competition, they can concentrate on solving problems in one area, which can increase work efficiency and reduce product development difficulty. . If companies can share R&D results, they will reduce huge investments, and the speed of R&D will also increase.

It is not too early for China's mold manufacturing to start as an industry, but after more than 20 years of rapid development, it is now beginning to take shape, and some competitive mold manufacturing enterprises have emerged. The relevant data shows that the current Pearl River Delta in Guangdong The area has become China's most advanced mold industry, the highest scientific and technological content of the region. Experts predict that with the acceleration of the global processing industry's center of gravity to China, this region may develop into a global mold production center within 10 years. However, it is undeniable that for the entire Chinese mold manufacturing industry, the opportunity for the rapid rise of the Chinese mold industry should be fully utilized to provide resources and support each other by providing related services. Only in this way can the mold industry get out of the current disadvantage.

To develop the industry, molds must go first. Qin Ke, deputy secretary-general of the China Die and Mould Industry Association, said that the mold is an extremely important and indispensable special basic process equipment in industrial production. As the mold production process integrates precision manufacturing, computer technology, intelligent control and green manufacturing, it is both a high-tech carrier and a high-tech product. Due to the high production efficiency, high consistency, low energy consumption and high energy consumption of the parts produced in batch using moulds, as well as their high precision and complexity, they have been increasingly valued by the industrial production departments of the national economy.

Most of the molds are produced for specific users. Therefore, compared with general industrial products, the mold enterprises have a large quantity and small scale, and are mostly small and medium enterprises. The technical content of mold products is high, the ratio of activated labor is high, the value-added rate is high, and the production cycle is long. Therefore, the mold manufacturing industry has a technology-intensive and capital-intensive, balanced production and enterprise management difficulty, and has a special dependence on specific users. , VAT load, slow accumulation of corporate funds, and long investment recovery period. Due to the wide variety of mold products, the great disparity in size, and the different requirements, the development of mold enterprises is suitable for “small and fine, small and specialized, small and special”; the development of the industry is suitable for agglomeration and cluster development to build strong Collaborative supporting system. This is one of the important features of the mold industry. Qin Ke said that in the past, the production and processing of molds relied mainly on fitters or extensive workshop-type production management models centering on fitters. Now it is gradually being replaced by an integrated, modern production management model that relies on technology and is centered on design. The traditional concept of mold products is also being replaced by the concept of high-tech products such as smart molds.

Since the 10th Five-Year Plan, under the support and guidance of state policies, the mold industry has invested a lot, the level and strength of the company's equipment have greatly improved, production technology has made great progress, CAD/CAM technology has become widespread, and hot runner technology and multiplexing Progressive stamping technology has been better promoted; digital technologies such as CAE, CAPP, PLM, and ERP have been adopted by some companies and have received good results; high-speed processing, concurrent engineering, reverse engineering, virtual manufacturing, and non-map production. Standardized production has been implemented in some key enterprises.

Advances in technology have led to a significant increase in the level of mold products in recent years, and the trend toward high-end development has become more apparent. Some mold products have reached or approached the world's advanced level, among which are representative giant molds with a single set of mold weight up to 120 tons, ultra-precision molds with machining accuracy of 0.3-0.5 μm and a service life of 300-400 million times. Long-life molds, high-speed precision stamping dies that can be matched with high-speed punches of 2500 times per minute, multi-material, multi-process forming multi-functional composite molds, intelligent molds capable of intelligent control, etc.

However, from the perspective of mold production and demand, the middle and low molds have been oversupply, while the high-tech mold self-sufficiency rate represented mainly by large-scale, sophisticated, complex, long-life molds is still low, only about 60%, and a large part still depends on import. At present, the total mold sales account for the largest proportion of plastic molds, accounting for about 45%; stamping molds account for about 37%; casting molds account for about 9%; and other types of molds total about 9%.

Qin Ke told reporters that the operating characteristics of the mold industry in 2010 showed that the structural adjustment of the industry over the past five years has achieved results. From the understanding of the Association, it can be clearly seen that large-scale, precision, high-efficiency, and high-performance molds are the main representatives. The proportion of medium-to-high-end molds continues to rise, and the product level has been greatly improved. At the 13th International Mould Technology and Equipment Exhibition in 2010, there were a total of 181 molds that received the "Premier Award", of which 55 were first prizes and 64 were second prizes. Not only did the number have a larger increase than before. Moreover, the level has also been greatly improved. More and more projects have reached the international level, innovation is evident, and patents have increased. The gap between the average price of imports and exports of moulds is continuously narrowing, which also reflects the improvement of the general level of the mold industry in China and the progress of science and technology. In 2010, China’s per capita plastic consumption was about 46 kg, which was only 1/3 of that in developed countries. This indicates that China’s plastic products industry will continue to develop rapidly during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period; “in plastics steel”, “ With the inevitable trend of plastic and wood, the engineering plastics industry is expected to maintain an average annual growth rate of 15% during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period. From this it can be imagined that the plastic molds with the highest proportion of the total mold will also develop at a relatively high growth rate during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period.

In addition, as the automotive industry with the largest amount of molds, it is expected that during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, it will grow at an average annual growth rate of about 10%, plus China’s huge motor vehicle ownership (the end of 2009 was 186 million, of which 7619.3 were for cars. The maintenance spare parts market and export market driven by 10,000 vehicles and 94.53 million motorcycles will also maintain a high growth rate for China’s auto parts and components on the basis of a huge market of 1.5 trillion yuan. During the period, the average annual growth rate of automotive molds will not be less than 10%, and the average annual growth rate of rubber molds, including automobile tire molds, will reach more than 10%.

The electronic and information industry is also a large user of the mold. The “12th Five-Year Plan” is expected to have an average annual growth rate of around 20%.

Rail transit, aerospace, new energy, medical equipment, building materials and other industries will also bring huge market for molds. For example, medical devices currently account for only 2% of the world's share. The consumption ratio of drugs and medical devices is only 2.5:1, while that of developed countries is 1:1. The per capita annual consumption of medical plastics in the United States is US$300, and China only has 30 yuan ***, showing the potential for development.

In the international market, due to the continuous increase in labor costs in industrialized countries, they are forced to transfer molds to developing countries, especially developing countries like China, which have a relatively good technological foundation, in order to reduce production costs. The trend of multinational companies coming to China to purchase molds is still in development, and the development of international emerging markets is also promising. However, the market demands more and more molds in development. For example, emerging industries such as automobile lightweighting, intelligent shaping, and new energy, aerospace, biomedical, rail transportation, and smart grids are the key national development priorities during the 12th Five-Year Plan period. Many of these development priorities require new development, and many technologies require breakthroughs. This should be used as a breakthrough to drive the overall level of the industry.

China's mold life is low (fine die life is generally only about 1/3 of the advanced level of foreign countries), long production cycle, poor quality reliability and stability, etc. long-term problems plaguing the development of the industry the next step to be solved. At the same time, China still has a large gap in research and development capabilities, personnel quality, research on the basic theory and technology of mold design and manufacturing, and so on, resulting in the development of new areas of the mold and the slow development of new products, high technology. The proportion of mold content is much lower than that of foreign countries (about 60% in foreign countries and less than 40% in China).

Die exports exceeded 100 million U.S. dollars. It took us more than 10 years, and it took us 7 years to grow from 100 million U.S. dollars to 1 billion U.S. dollars. Exports are now approaching 2 billion U.S. dollars. It can be said that the mold industry in China has already reached a considerable foundation. However, the base figure is large. To achieve the goal of doubling exports in the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, we must actively cultivate export bases and key export enterprises. Of course, expanding foreign trade and developing exports are not only aimed at reaching the export target of 4 billion U.S. dollars. What is more important is to achieve the integration with the international market through the completion of this task, and to promote the improvement of China's mold technology and the comprehensive level of the industry. .

Reflections on the Management of Private Mold Enterprises in China At present, the scale of China's private mold companies is not large. How do we stick to the small, specialized, small and refined, small and special professional production road? According to Wang Jinling, it is necessary to determine the company’s products and market positioning according to market demand and the conditions of the company’s technology, capital, and equipment, and concentrate on gradually forming its own technological advantages and product advantages. In China's mold industry, the number of private enterprises occupies a large proportion. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 6,000 private mold companies in Zhejiang Province, and the annual mold output value is as high as 6 billion yuan***. With the improvement of the level of production technology of the mold industry, improvement of equipment conditions and production scale, as well as the increasingly fierce competition in the mold market at home and abroad, how to further strengthen and improve the management and management of private mold enterprises on the basis of the existing, Wang Jinling proposed There are five issues worthy of research and exploration in practice. First, the production management model of private mold companies needs reform. The management mode of enterprises is not fixed, but with the development of productivity, the improvement of the level of technology is constantly changing. In the past, the production facilities of these molds were several ordinary cars, milling, planing and drilling machines, vise and grinders, and a master fitter with several apprentices, implementing the "contracting system" from beginning to end. Most mold enterprises in Europe, the United States and other countries are also small companies with 30 to 50 people. However, CAD/CAM applications are high and there are many CNC machining equipments. The precision of mold parts is ensured by advanced processing equipment, and the workers strictly follow the process. The processing of the mold parts was in place. Finally, the fitter's renovation work was very small. A mold factory of about 50 people, and assembly fitters were generally only 2 to 3 people. Mold companies want to develop, hardware is the key. Many domestic companies have purchased many advanced and expensive equipment for rapid development. A lot of investment, but not necessarily will be used. The use of advanced equipment not only requires highly qualified personnel, but also has sufficient orders for the purpose of making the best use of it, otherwise the imported equipment will be idle and become a “tired burden”. When the conditions are not mature, mold companies do not have to invest too much money in the purchase of equipment, equipment can be enough. CAD/CAM companies with good mold applications can gradually reform the existing contract-style production management model from the perspective of improving economic efficiency. At present, many companies are buying ERP systems, but these companies are all equipped with a certain size of mold companies, such as Nanjing Nanqi Mould Equipment Co., Ltd., Suzhou Huizhong Molding Co., Ltd., etc. Not all mold companies need such a system. Wuxi Guosheng Precision Mould Co., Ltd. has studied the advanced management concepts of foreign-funded enterprises, combined with the actual situation of the company, and developed together with Nanjing Aerospace Aerospace Co., Ltd. to develop a C4P integrated system of CAD, CAE, CAM, and CAT with PDM as its core. The integration of CAD, PDM, and ERP improves the speed and control capabilities of mold design and manufacturing, and improves product R&D capabilities.

Second, the family-owned management methods and employment mechanisms of private enterprises need to be reformed. In the past, relying on hard work to accumulate funds, buy equipment, and build factories, has reached a certain scale. This is the result of the joint efforts of family members. Until now, many companies are still husband general managers, and the wife is the chairman or chief accountant. In the face of fierce market competition and new environment, in the face of the improvement of the technological level of enterprises and the improvement of equipment conditions, in the face of the expansion of the scale of enterprises, we will continue to use the past “family-style management” and “independence-only” employment mechanisms. It is already outdated. Therefore, private companies must also "respect the people," and "only use it." Talented people should be responsible for the production management, technical management, and marketing management of the company. To truly accomplish this, as long as there is a skill, as long as it can create profits for the company, it is not the relatives who have to “entrust the important tasks”. Shopping malls, such as battlefields, put people with operational management skills and technical skills on important positions, allowing him to “be in place and work for the government” to be able to run well and be invincible in the fierce market competition. Ground. How mold companies retain talent is also a question worth exploring. Talented people do not flow. "A pool of stagnant water" is not conducive to the growth of talents and the exertion of their functions. However, the flow of talented people is too frequent. “Towards the Qin and Qin dynasty” and “to fight for a place” are also not conducive to the accumulation of employees' experience and skills and the development of enterprises. Judging from the current situation, the managers and managers of mold companies should use their brains for "taking a career to retain people," "paying people," and "staying with their feelings," and think of ways to retain those who really have the ability.

Thirdly, mold enterprises must adhere to the path of specialization, smallness, precision, smallness and specialization. According to the market demand and the company's technology, capital, equipment and other conditions, accurately establish their own product positioning and market positioning is the current mold companies need to pay attention to the problem. Most of China's mold enterprises are self-produced tooling workshops (branches), and most of them are "large and complete" and "small and complete" organizations. In order to achieve the purpose of business, what kind of mold orders may be connected. Most foreign mold companies have determined their product positioning and market positioning based on the mold needs of the automotive, electronics, and medical industries. In order to survive and develop in the market competition, each mold manufacturer has its own superior technologies and products and adopts specialized production methods. Many small businesses have achieved good results due to their specialization, smallness, precision, and small special specialization. Secretary-General Wang Jinling believes that the development of domestic mold enterprises should clearly define their own direction and goals, do not blindly develop, and do not pay attention to formalism, and do “small but specialized, small and refined” companies.

Fourth, the mold enterprises must be made bigger and bigger on the basis of being stronger. In the past, these enterprises had accumulated themselves bit by bit. This year, they bought several equipment and built several factories next year, gradually rolling up and developing. But now the times are different, now is the era of business information, the Internet has entered millions of households, why can only be accepted by young people, not recognized by middle-aged entrepreneurs, why not use e-commerce to achieve international integration? , so that our business owners will not be able to receive orders from home and abroad, so that foreigners or manufacturers who want to cooperate with you can find you on the Internet, why not? Our awareness of the entire network of Taizhou enterprises, especially small businesses, is still very weak. This is a stumbling block to our corporate development. We must overcome this stumbling block. Our business owners should begin to learn computers and master the Internet. This is a successful way to go abroad. The world's shortcut. Fifth, pay attention to the power of the alliance.

In the increasingly homogenous competition today, product support services are reflected in the company's soft power, mold companies must pay attention to sales staff training, pay attention to after-sales service, to provide personalized services to create reputation, and consolidate the development of the market. Before entering a region, you should learn more about the market. Many foreign mold companies have conducted detailed and comprehensive investigations and analysis before entering the Chinese market, based on scientific data, rather than follow suit. The location of their companies and the setting of their prices are all very scientific. It can thus be seen that successful companies do not follow their feelings, but combine emotional and rational.

Many Chinese companies like to go it alone, but in the current competitive environment, the ability of a person or a company has certain limitations. To expand production, to scale, we must build a global network, avoid weaknesses, and alliance with suppliers, channel distributors, and peers. This is a trend of future development and has been confirmed in the process of the rapid development of the current industrial cluster (mold industry park). In this regard, some foreign companies have done a good job, such as the Portuguese mold companies, through the cooperation with Boeing, to enhance the spread of mold brands throughout the country. Similarly, for Chinese companies, this can also be used as a reference. Ways. We can allow foreign orders and drawings to be completed by the Chinese mold companies to complete the design and production of specific operations, and in the process continue to learn their advanced technology and management concepts, speed up the process of industrialization, and strive to improve the company's own core Competitiveness.

At present, the advantages of domestic mold manufacturing companies compared to foreign investment mold companies are mainly reflected in the cost advantage, but this advantage will become less and less obvious. The disadvantages of the domestic mold enterprises are mainly reflected in the backwardness of the management level, the backwardness of the technical level, the backwardness of production equipment, and the backwardness of the talent training mechanism. In recent years, with the introduction of advanced equipment by mold companies and the implementation of advanced concepts, the speed of self-development has been greatly improved, but there are still deficiencies. Most domestic mold companies have the idea of ​​being satisfied with the status quo. They do not realize that companies must continue to learn and insist on innovation in order to achieve sustainable development. This requires companies to be fast, standardized and made popular. To achieve this, companies need to be able to establish a rapid response chain, optimize the management of the company, and be customer-oriented to achieve a keen grasp of the market, improve their internal skills, and achieve internal and external repairs. With the development of the western region, the rise of central China, and the construction of new countryside, China's mold market will continue to expand with the development of the social economy. As we continue to innovate on the road to seek differentiation, the value and influence of China's mold will continue to increase.

Mould Manufacturing Informationization Intelligent Path Analysis The key to the development of the mold industry is to use information technology to drive and upgrade the manufacturing technology level of the mold industry. At present, the application of CAD/CAE/CAM technology and rapid model manufacturing technology in the mold industry has revolutionized the design and manufacturing technology of molds. In addition, the application of CNC precision and high-efficiency machining equipment in the development and manufacturing of molds, such as five-axis machining tools and high-speed milling, has greatly improved the level of development in the mold industry.

The informationization of an enterprise refers to how the company coordinates with the surrounding environmental conditions, develops and makes good use of information resources, and enables production and business activities to use the timely processing of information and smooth circulation to operate with high quality and efficiency. For the mold manufacturing industry, its information content mainly includes the digitization, integration, flexibility, and intelligence of the mold manufacturing, the virtualization of the manufacturing process, and the networking and globalization of the manufacturing process.

As we all know, the majority of mold companies are small and medium-sized enterprises, and most of them are from hand-workshop-type companies. At present, many mold companies in the domestic mold industry still use workshop-style management methods. Problems with cost, quality, and quality control are endless, and it is not uncommon for orders to be delayed or lost orders to lose customers.

In the face of fierce market competition and backward enterprise management methods and levels, the management and technical personnel in the mold enterprises can only be busy to deal with. The CAD//CAE/CAM systems and high-end numerical control processing equipment imported by the enterprises with huge investments are also difficult to play. Due to its proper efficiency and level, most mold manufacturing companies lack the vitality and market competitiveness that are comparable to their production hardware. Of course, these problems have also aroused the attention of many domestic mold makers who are aiming to enter the international mold market. Undoubtedly, how to improve the level of enterprise management and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises has become the most important issue for China's mold manufacturing industry to participate in the international market competition.

Therefore, mold manufacturing companies want to further improve their management level, have the ability to respond quickly and adjust in time, and it is difficult to achieve information management without a set of advanced management systems. Through information construction, the realization of integrated management of mold manufacturing companies is an effective way to promote enterprises to improve their business management.

Different from other manufacturing industries, the mold is a typical single-order production industry. Each order or each mold needs to communicate with customers in detail in terms of business and technology, otherwise it may have serious consequences. Loss is difficult to estimate. Therefore, in essence, the mold product is the most important activity target of the mold enterprise, and the production process is dependent on the mold product and changes along with the development of the mold product. In this way, the basics of the informationization of mold enterprises are transformed into informationization of the mold itself.

The use of mold manufacturing information management system can provide enterprises with a shared, consistent, and faithful process monitoring platform. In the information system, through project planning and process monitoring, real-time management can be performed on the entire life cycle of the mold (from order confirmation to model design, raw material procurement, processing and production, first trial mode, to mold modification and on-time delivery). The management personnel at the production line can directly report the actual progress of the mold production in the system. The system faithfully monitors every task of the project process. When a control point is delayed, the system will automatically send an alarm mail to relevant personnel. For early detection and resolution. Moreover, for some key tasks, it is also possible for the system to give early warning so that relevant personnel can be prepared and arranged early. Moreover, the promotion of informatization by mold manufacturers has unexpected benefits in terms of increasing their productivity, reducing production costs, and improving product quality.

Through the actual process of informationization of some domestic mold companies, we can understand that the information integration of mold manufacturing can effectively promote the standardization of enterprise management, improve the operational efficiency and market competitiveness of enterprises, and improve the management of enterprises. It is liberated from complicated and repetitive labor. For senior executives, they can have more time to pay attention to the development direction of the company, strengthen communication with customers, and develop a wide range of markets. Market personnel can further strengthen the management of customer resources and find new customers. The technical supervisor can have time to pay attention to the development trend of mold technology, strengthen the exchange of technology within the industry, and continuously improve the technical level of the company. Production supervisors can also have more time to consider how to further improve ergonomics, improve quality and reduce costs, and continuously improve. . Therefore, mold companies should grasp the convenience and opportunities brought about by the information age, use their own characteristics for their own use, and lay a solid foundation for the sustainable development of the company.

Give priority to the development of smart molds. What is smart manufacturing equipment and smart mold? The so-called intelligent manufacturing equipment is a manufacturing equipment with sensing, analysis, decision-making and control functions. The intelligent mold also has the functions of sensing, analysis, decision-making and control. The stamping mold and die-casting mold with sensing and temperature control functions have the function of temperature control. The injection molds, etc., manufactured by intelligent control means such as injection molding parameters and in-mold flow conditions are intelligent molds. Luo Baihui, executive secretary of the International Mould and Hardware & Plastics Industry Suppliers Association, once pointed out that as China’s low-cost human resources are difficult to sustain and the level of science and technology continues to develop, automated and intelligent manufacturing will inevitably become an important development direction for modern manufacturing. Smart molds are bound to develop rapidly. Producing products with intelligent molds can further improve product quality and production efficiency, save more materials, realize automated production and green manufacturing. Therefore, although the current total amount of smart mold is still not much, but it represents the new direction of development of mold technology, will play an increasingly important role in the industry product structure adjustment and change in development methods. The development of intelligent molds will inevitably have a powerful driving role in promoting the rapid improvement of the entire mold industry. Therefore, it is particularly necessary to prioritize the development of intelligent molds in the development of the industry.

1. Intelligent molds for emerging strategic industries: Energy-saving and environment-friendly molds for energy-saving and environmental protection industries. These molds mainly include molds for energy-saving and emission-reducing automotive vehicles, high-gloss traceless and in-mold assembly decorative molds, laminated molds and rotary molds, and multi-color multi-colors manufactured through intelligent control methods such as injection molding parameters and in-mold flow state. Materials injection molds, multi-layer co-extrusion compound molds, multi-functional composite efficient molds, LED new light source supporting molds and energy-efficient motors, such as sheet metal stamping die.

2. Precision, ultra-precision molds with sensing functions for a new generation of information technology industries. Such molds include large-scale integrated circuit lead frame precision multi-position progressive die, multi-cavity multi-injection lead frame precision rubber and plastic packaging die, electronic components and connectors high-precision high-speed multi-position progressive die, a new generation Electronic components and efficient multi-row precision multi-position progressive die and multi-functional compound forming mold, a new generation of electronic products, plastic parts intelligent forming molds, high-precision multi-layer light guide plate molds and IoT sensor ultra-precision molds.

3, medical equipment for the biological industry precision ultra-precision molds. Such molds are mainly used to manufacture precision injection molds for super-precision medical devices, injection molds for metal parts (stainless steel, etc.), and biochip molds for precision and super-precision medical devices through plastic injection molding parameters and in-mold flow state and other intelligent control methods. 4, for the "high-end equipment manufacturing industry" service of intelligent mold. These types of molds mainly include large-scale precision stamping dies for large CNC forming stamping equipment, precision forging dies for heavy forging equipment, large-scale temperature-controlled precision casting molds for clean and efficient casting equipment, and large-scale non-metallic molding equipment. Precision plastic molds and high-grade radial tires and giant engineering tire molds, large precision numerically-controlled debugable non-indented bending molds and intelligent bending molds for large-scale CNC bending machines and intelligent bending machines, aerospace and defense industry special Material forming molds and rapid dies, special casting and forging dies for aerospace and defense industries, special non-ferrous metal stamping dies, EMU gearbox dies and super high speed (>300 km/h) precision bearing dies, optical products for military products Spherical lenses and special lens forming dies, plastics and metal materials such as ultra-thin ultra-fine and micro-part forming dies, high-speed manufacturing services for metal and non-metallic materials, fast and efficient intelligent forming molds and so on.

5, mold for the new energy industry. These types of molds mainly include new blade molds for megawatt wind turbines, spindle molds, and motor molds.

6, mold for the new energy automotive industry services. These types of molds mainly include new energy automotive battery molds, new energy automotive transmission molds, new energy vehicles with plastic steel and light metal steel molds, energy-saving automotive hybrid power tool molds, automotive panel thermoforming molds, and multi-station automation Stamping die and so on.

According to Luo Baihui, during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, the overall goal of the development of intelligent mold manufacturing equipment for strategic emerging industries in China is to develop intelligent molds to drive the improvement of the overall level of high-efficiency, precision, and high-performance molds to meet “smart manufacturing” packages. The requirement to drive the mold to improve the overall level of strategic emerging industry services, so that the level of smart mold has been greatly improved, and lay a solid foundation for China's mold industry into the world mold power by 2020. The specific goals are:

1. The level of high-efficiency, precision, and high-performance molds represented by intelligent molds. The medium and long-term goal is to reach the international advanced level. At the end of the “Twelfth Five-year Plan”, the first level of intelligent molds should basically meet the needs of intelligent manufacturing. . The specific goal is that the proportion of multi-station auto stamping dies for auto parts will increase from the current 10% to around 20% at the end of the “Twelfth Five-year Plan” period, and then reach a medium- and long-term goal of around 30%; The proportion of intelligent function hot runner injection molds for all injection molds has increased from the current 20% to around 40% at the end of the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, and has reached a medium- and long-term target of around 60%.

2. The percentage of high-efficiency, precision, and high-performance molds represented by intelligent molds accounted for approximately 35% of the total molds, reaching over 40% of the end of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, and thus achieving a mid-to-long term of more than 50%. aims.

3. Continuously shorten the production cycle of the mold and improve the service life and stability of the mold. Firstly, the production cycle at the end of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period is shortened by 20% to 30% compared with the current period. The service life is 20% to 30% higher than that at present. To improve reliability and stability.

4. Continuously improve the level of digitization and informationization. At the end of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, enterprises that manufacture high-efficiency, precise, high-performance molds basically achieved CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM integration, and more than 40% of companies basically implemented information management.

5. Automatic mould production is an important development direction. Currently, it is still in the experimental practice stage. By the end of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”, there will be more than 5 mould companies that can realize the automatic production of moulds, and in the intelligent networked manufacturing technology and management of moulds. There is a major breakthrough.

Three major projects 1. Intelligent stamping die innovation project The main content of this project is focused on the intelligentization of stamping dies. The project goal is to rapidly increase the level of intelligence of this type of die, and intelligentize the product through intelligent control of the die. Production, thereby greatly improving the product's production efficiency and product quality, to adapt to serve the strategic emerging industries, especially to meet the needs of intelligent manufacturing.

2. Intelligent cavity mold innovation project The main content of this project is focused on the intelligentization of cavity molds. The project goal is to rapidly increase the level of intelligence of such molds, and intelligent production of products can be achieved through intelligent control of molds. So as to greatly improve the product's production efficiency and product quality, in order to adapt to serve strategic emerging industries, especially to meet the needs of smart manufacturing.

3. Intelligent Mold Industrialization Project In order to adapt mold equipment to the development of strategic emerging industries, it is necessary to organize the implementation of intelligent mold industrialization projects to promote the development of intelligent molds. The intelligent mold industrialization project is mainly based on some key backbone enterprises with advanced technology, strong strength and potential for development. The combination of production, learning, research, and application is used to apply the innovative results of intelligent molds to practical applications. R & D in products, and through the technological transformation of enterprises to achieve the industrialization of intelligent molds, and further enhance the company's core competitiveness, complete the development of strategic services for strategic emerging industries supporting major tasks. The successful development of "variety mold" from the Yangzhou University School of Mechanical Engineering came good news, the school led by Professor Song Aiping's scientific research team, after two years of scientific and technological research, and finally developed a new type of flexible molding rod mold. This set of molds can be used to replace several sets of molds because it can be easily and quickly reconstructed into 100 forms of molding surfaces.

According to reports, when manufacturing sheet metal covers for products such as automobiles, ships, aerospace, aviation, and military products, a large number of press forming molds are required. Traditional molds are usually expensive and have long manufacturing cycles. Now with such "variable" molds, it can greatly shorten the product development and manufacturing cycle, and reduce mold material consumption, reduce product costs, especially for small and medium quantities of curved panel forming process.

Rapid prototyping only takes three days to manufacture a mold. It is a difficult problem. It took about three months to build a mold. It takes only three days for the Nanjing Auto Group to create new molds. It is understood that the rapid prototyping technology recently developed by the Automotive Engineering Research Institute of the Nanjing Automobile Group uses laser scanning, and the liquid material in the machine can copy the model within three days. This set of technology is worth 400,000 US dollars, and it has 4 sets in the South China Automobile Group. Rapid prototyping technology will be more applied to the research and manufacturing of second-generation and third-generation MG cars.

Microbial development into a new type of plastic mold According to the Yomiuri Shimbun news, scientists are currently working on research and development of plastic molds that are not dependent on oil, have high durability, and have a wide range of applications and are suitable for mass production. The research team at the end of the R&F Department of Agricultural Life Science at the University of Tokyo in Japan succeeded in developing a new type of ultra-high performance plastic using microbes as raw materials. It is understood that the research team of Professor Ryokochichi et al. made use of a microorganism (a type of actinomycetes) present in the soil as a main raw material to produce 3-amino-4-hydroxybenzoic acid (3, 4). —AHBA) In this compound, only two novel enzymes were used in the synthesis reaction, and this compound was then polymerized into a plastic mold. The plastic mold had a great breakthrough in heat resistance and other properties than the previous product.