What is the mold? What are the types of molds?...

What is the mold?

Mold, various molds and tools used in industrial production to obtain required products by injection molding, blow molding, extrusion, die casting or forging molding, smelting, stamping and other methods. In short, mold is a tool used to make molded articles. This tool is composed of various parts, and different molds are composed of different parts. It mainly realizes the processing of article shape by changing the physical state of the formed material. Known as the "mother of industry".

A tool for making a blank into a workpiece with a specific shape and size under the action of external force. It is widely used in blanking, die forging, cold heading, extrusion, pressing of powder metallurgy parts, pressure casting, and compression molding or injection molding of engineering plastics, rubber, ceramics and other products. The die has a specific contour or cavity shape. The blank can be separated (blanking) according to the contour shape by using the contour shape with cutting edge. The application of the inner cavity shape can make the blank obtain the corresponding three-dimensional shape. The mold generally includes two parts: moving mold and fixed mold (or punch and concave mold), which can be divided or combined. When separating, take out the parts, and when closing, inject the blank into the die cavity for forming. Mold is a precision tool with complex shape, bears the expansion force of blank, and has high requirements for structural strength, stiffness, surface hardness, surface roughness and machining accuracy. The development level of mold production is one of the important symbols of mechanical manufacturing level.
 

What are the types of molds?

According to the processing object and processing technology, it can be divided into:
① A mold for processing metal.
② Mold for processing non-metallic and powder metallurgy. Including plastic molds (such as two-color molds, compression molds and extrusion molds), rubber molds and powder metallurgy molds. According to the structural characteristics, the die can be divided into plane blanking die and cavity die with space. Molds are generally single piece and small batch production.

What is the mold production process?

Mold is a model. Products are made according to this model, but how mold is produced may not be answered by most professionals except mold. Mold has played an irreplaceable role in our life. Most of our daily necessities are inseparable from mold, such as computers, telephones, fax machines, keyboards, Needless to say, cups and other plastic products. In addition, the covers of automobile and motorcycle engines are also made of molds. More than 20000 molds will be used for a variety of automobiles. Therefore, the role of molds in modern life can not be replaced. As long as mass production is inseparable from molds.
So how is the mold made?
The following is a brief introduction to the modern mold production process.
1) ESI (early supplier involvement): this stage is mainly a technical discussion between customers and suppliers on product design and mold development. The main purpose is to enable suppliers to clearly understand the design intent and accuracy requirements of product designers, and also enable product designers to better understand the mold production capacity, The process performance of the product, so as to make a more reasonable design.
2) Quotation: including the price of the mould, the service life of the mould, the turnover process, the required tonnage of the machine and the delivery date of the mould（ More detailed quotation should include product size and weight, die size and weight, etc.)
3) Purchase order: customer order, deposit delivery and supplier order acceptance.
4) Production planning and schedule arrangement: at this stage, you need to reply to the customer for the specific delivery date of the mold.
5) Mold design: possible design software include Pro / Engineer, UG, Solidworks, AutoCAD, CATIA, etc
6) Procurement of materials
7) Machining: the processes involved generally include turning, Gong (milling), heat treatment, grinding, computer gong (CNC), EDM, WEDM, jig grinding, laser lettering, polishing, etc.
8) Mold assembly
9) Trial run
10) Model evaluation report (SER)
11) Ser approval

What is the service life of the mold related to?

Design is the key step in die production and the initial link of production, which controls the whole process of die production. Therefore, design also has a great impact on the service life of die. Design mainly affects the service life of stamping die from the following two aspects.
(1) The accuracy of the guiding mechanism of the die. Accurate and reliable guidance has a great impact on reducing the wear of die working parts and avoiding the gnawing of punch and die, especially the blanking die without gap and small gap, compound die and multi station progressive die. In order to improve the service life of the die, the guiding form must be correctly selected and the accuracy of the guiding mechanism must be determined according to the requirements of process properties and part accuracy.
(2) Geometric parameters of cutting edge of die (male and female die). The shape, fit clearance and fillet radius of punch and die have a great influence not only on the forming of stamping parts, but also on the wear and life of die. For example, the fit clearance of the die directly affects the quality of the blanking parts and the service life of the die. If the accuracy requirement is high, the smaller clearance value should be selected in the design; On the contrary, the gap can be appropriately increased to improve the service life of the die.