English
English
Mold design is the bridge connecting product conception and mass manufacturing, and its quality directly determines product accuracy, production efficiency, and cost
1、 Accurately meet product requirements
This is the primary goal of the design.
Dimensional and positional accuracy: Ensure that the molded part of the mold can stably produce products that meet the tolerance requirements of the drawing, fully considering material shrinkage, mold wear, and elastic deformation.
Surface quality: Based on product requirements, the surface roughness, texture (etching), and polishing level of the mold cavity/core should be reasonably determined to avoid visible defects such as parting lines, shrinkage marks, and flow marks.
Structural integrity: The design ensures that the product can be smoothly demolded, avoiding deformation or cracking caused by buckling or stress concentration.
2、 Ensure efficient and stable production
The core value of molds lies in efficient and repetitive production.
Automation and ease of operation: The design should facilitate the implementation of automated production, including reliable automatic demolding (ejection), automatic core pulling, and automatic detachment of flow channel aggregates. The operation should be safe and easy.
Cooling efficiency: The design of the cooling system is a key factor affecting production efficiency (cycle time). Require a uniform and efficient layout of the waterway, with priority given to cooling thick walled and high-temperature areas of the product to achieve rapid and uniform cooling.
Long life and wear resistance: In response to the abrasion resistance of molding materials (such as fiberglass reinforced plastics), appropriate steel (such as pre hardened steel, quenched steel) is selected for key molding parts (cores, cavities, sliders), and surface treatment (such as nitriding, PVD coating) is carried out. Reasonable fitting clearances and lubrication are designed.
Quick repair and maintenance: using standardized mold frames and parts. Vulnerable parts (such as ejector pins and drivers) should be easy to replace separately. Large molds should consider a split structure for easy handling, maintenance, and polishing.
3、 Rigorous forming process feasibility
The design is based on a deep understanding of specific molding processes such as injection molding, die casting, and stamping.
Runner and pouring system: The position, size, and form of the sprue should ensure that the melt fills the cavity with the optimal flow path, reducing pressure loss and temperature difference, and avoiding defects such as weld marks and trapped gas.
Exhaust system: Adequate and reasonable exhaust grooves (usually 0.01-0.03mm deep) should be set up at the end of the melt flow and in the trapped gas area to prevent product burning and insufficient filling.
Demolding system: The layout and size balance of the ejector mechanism (ejector pin, push plate, driver, etc.) provide sufficient ejector force and stroke to ensure smooth demolding of the product without deformation or whitening. The demolding slope design is reasonable.
4、 The rigidity and safety of the mold's own structure
Molds are precision equipment that work under high pressure, high temperature, and periodic impact.
Rigidity and strength: The mold frame, template, and support system have sufficient thickness and strength to resist huge locking forces and injection pressures, preventing template bending and deformation that may cause burrs.
Reliability of the motion mechanism: All sliding blocks, inclined tops, and other moving parts have precise and durable designs for guidance, locking (shovel base, wear-resistant block), and driving (inclined guide column, oil cylinder), avoiding jamming, wear, or interference.
Safety protection: The design should avoid stress concentration points such as sharp corners and thin steel. Moving parts should have travel limit and safety protection devices.
5、 Excellent economic efficiency
Pursuing optimal cost while meeting performance requirements.
Material cost optimization: Use standard parts or lower cost materials in non critical areas. Through modular design, partial replacement of the core/cavity can be achieved instead of overall remanufacturing.
Optimization of processing costs: The design should be easy to process and minimize complex processes such as electrical discharge cleaning and deep hole machining. The structural design should consider the characteristics of processes such as CNC, EDM, and grinding machines.
Standardization and universality: Use standard mold frames and components (such as ejector pins, screws, springs, and guide posts) as much as possible to shorten the design and procurement cycle and reduce costs.
6、 Prospective and Scalable
Plan prediction: In the early stage of design, it is necessary to predict possible production problems (such as shrinkage and deformation) and avoid them in advance through mold structures (such as conformal cooling and sequential valve gates).
Modification and upgrade space: Leave room for possible subsequent design changes to the product (such as partial glue reduction). For serialized products, mold design can consider achieving multi product sharing by replacing the mold core.
In summary, mold design is a systematic engineering that seeks the best balance between "product quality", "production efficiency", "mold life", and "manufacturing cost". It requires designers to possess three-dimensional spatial imagination, material science knowledge, mechanical engineering principles, and rich practical experience. The final delivery is not only a set of drawings, but also a complete, reliable, and economical production solution.
