Current status of plastic mold China
Plastic products are widely used in daily society. Molding technology has become one of the important indicators to measure manufacturing level of a country’s products. China injection molds have developed rapidly in both quality and quantity. However, compared with foreign advanced technologies, most of China’s plastic injection molding manufacturers are still in a critical period that requires technological transformation, technological innovation, product quality improvement, modern management, and institutional transition.
Regarding regional distribution of plastic molding process industry in China, plastic products processing industry in Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta is in the forefront with proportion of plastic molding production value in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong accounts for 70% of total mold output value. Now, many plastic injection molding manufacturers in these three provinces have realized the unlimited business opportunities in plastic molding industry and are actively organizing development and manufacture of mold products.
Plastic products have been widely used in various pillar industries such as automobiles, electromechanical, instrumentation, and aerospace, as well as in various fields related to people’s daily lives. Although there are many methods for forming plastic products, the most important method is injection molding. About half of plastic forming molds in the world plastic mold market are injection molds.
At present, there are about 30,000 plastic injection molding manufacturers in China with more than 800,000 employees. In 2005, mold exports reached 740 million US dollars, an increase of about 50% from 2004’s 490 million US dollars, ranking first in the world. In 2006, the total output value of plastic molds in China was about 30 billion yuan, of which export value was about 5.8 billion yuan. In addition to self-production and self-use, the total demand for plastic molds in China was about 31.3 billion yuan in 2006, and the total supply of China molds was about 23 billion yuan, with a market satisfaction rate of 73.5%. In China, Guangdong, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui are the main production centers. Guangdong accounted for 40% of China’s total mold production, proportion of injection molding further increased also with level of hot runner molds and gas-assisted molds further improved.
Injection molding have developed rapidly in quantity and quality. Weight of the largest injection molds made in China is more than 50 tons, and precision of the most accurate injection molds has reached 2 microns. Small-modulus gear molds with high precision of parts and headlight molds for high optical requirements have also been produced. Multi-cavity plastic molds have been able to produce a 7800-cavity plastic mold, and high-speed molds have been able to produce high-speed plastic profile at a speed of 6m/min besides various dies such as double cavity co-extrusion, double color co-extrusion, soft-hard co-extrusion, post-co-extrusion, recycled material co-extrusion and low foam co-extrusion. At the same time that CAD/CAM technology has become popular, CAE technology has also become more and more widely used. CAD/CAM/CAE integration has been developed. The rapid development of innovations in new molds, new varieties, new processes and new materials are emerging, especially in automobiles, home appliances has led to rapid development of injection molds.
Overall, plastic mold China have made great progress in terms of quantity, quality, technology and capabilities. However, compared with needs of national economic development and world’s advanced level, gap is still large. Some large, sophisticated, complex, long-life mid-to-high-end plastic molds still require imports every year. At the same time that total supply is in short supply, some low-end plastic molding are oversupplied, and market competition is fierce. There are also some mid-range plastic molding with less technical content, which also have a tendency to oversupply.
Development trend of plastic mold China
After several years of development, plastic molding have shown some new development trends:
- Greatly improve development capability of injection molds.
Push development work forward as much as possible until it is involved in product development of mold user, even before development of user object is clear. Turn passive into active.
At present, TV and display covering, air conditioner covering, motorcycle plastic parts, etc. have adopted this method. Development of mobile phone and telephone molds has also begun. This practice has broken long-term situation that mold factory can only wait for a contract to carry out the passive situation of plastic mold design according to user requirements.
- Injection molds have changed from relying on fitter skills to relying on modern technology.
With improvement on plastic mold design and processing level of plastic injection molding manufacturer, manufacture of injection molds has changed from relying on the skills of fitters to relying mainly on technology. This is not only a change in production means, but also a change in plastic molding process and an increase in ideas. This trend has led to continuous improvement of standardization of mold. Higher precision mold, shorter production cycle, and lower proportion of fitter has finally promoted the overall improvement of plastic mold industry.
At present, there are more than 10 state-level high-tech enterprises in China, and about 200 provincial and municipal high-tech enterprises. In line with this trend, it is inevitable that main backbone of production molds will gradually change from skilled talents to technical talents.
- Mold production is rapidly developing into information technology.
In the information society, as a high-level modern plastic injection molding manufacturer, application of CAD/CAM alone is far from enough. At present, many plastic injection molding manufacturers have adopted CAE, CAT, PDM, CAPP, KBE, KBS, RE, CIMS, ERP and other advanced manufacturing technologies, virtual network technologies, which are all manifestations of informationization. The trend towards development of information technology has become an industry consensus.
- Injection molding are developed to a wider range.
With continuous advancement of human society, molds will inevitably develop into a wider range of fields and higher levels. Now, plastic injection molding manufacturer that can seize the opportunity and open up the market, constantly discover new growth points and produce high-tech mold are very prosperous with a good profit level and employee income. Therefore, mold plastic injection molding manufacturer should grasp this trend and continuously improve their comprehensive quality and international competitiveness.
With the development of the market, new plastic materials and diversified molding methods will inevitably continue to develop in the future, so requirements for molds are also increasing. In order to meet needs of market, future plastic molds will have a rapid development in terms of variety, structure, performance and processing. Ultra-large, ultra-precision, long-life, high-efficiency molds. Molds with multiple materials, multiple colors, multi-layer, multi-cavity, and multiple molding methods will be developed. New materials for higher performance and special-purpose molds will continue to evolve, resulting in special, more advanced processing methods. Various mold cavity surface treatment technologies, such as coating, repair, grinding and polishing, will continue to evolve.
Prospect of plastic mold China
Back to 10 years ago, accuracy of precision molds was generally 5 microns, and accuracy of molds will become higher and higher over time. It has now reached 2 to 3 microns, and soon a 1 micron precision mold will be available. This requires super finishing. Plastic molding industry will become larger and larger. This is caused by multi-cavity that develops due to high productivity requirements and increasing size of mold-formed parts. Multi-functional composite molds in the mold industry will be further developed. In addition to stamping and forming parts, the new multi-functional composite molds are also responsible for assembly tasks such as lamination, tapping, riveting and locking, and performance requirements for steel are also increasing.
In particular, home hardware industry needs continuous development and innovation. The industry is increasingly demanding home hardware, and home hardware industry is showing different changes. Many furniture hardware manufacturers invisibly separate the two from each other: Decorative hardware does not pay attention to functional development and functional hardware is insufficient for its decorative development research. There is a disconnect between these two items.
Plastic molding industry is an important part of China’s hardware industry. The 12th Five-Year Plan period is a crucial period for China to properly respond to major changes in China and international development environment, to accelerate the goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way. It is also a key period for healthy development of China’s plastic molding industry. Although there are many environmental uncertainties, China’s economic development is still in the period of rapid growth. The comparative advantage of plastic mold China in the international mold market still exists. China mold market is expected to continue to be optimistic, and development of plastic molding industry is showing a general trend.
