Since the reform and opening up, with the rapid development of the national economy, the market demand for mold is growing. The mould industry has been developing rapidly at a growth rate of about 15%, and the ownership of mould industry enterprises has also undergone great changes. In addition to the state-owned professional mould factories, collectives, joint ventures, sole proprietorships and private enterprises have also developed rapidly. The 'hometown of mould' in Ningbo and Huangyan areas of Zhejiang Province; some large group companies and rapidly rising township enterprises in Guangdong Province, such as Kelon, Midea and Konka, have established their own mold manufacturing centers; there are thousands of Sino foreign joint ventures and wholly foreign-owned mold enterprises. With the rapid pace of international integration and the increasingly fierce market competition, people have more and more realized the importance of product quality, cost and new product development ability. Mold manufacturing is one of the most basic elements in the whole chain. Many die and mold enterprises have increased the investment for technological progress and regard technological progress as an important driving force for enterprise development. Some domestic mold enterprises have popularized 2D CAD, and began to use Pro / E, PDX, UG NX, NX progressive die design, I-DEAS, Euclid is, logopress3, 3dquickpress, moldworks and topsolid Some manufacturers have also introduced CAE software such as Moldflow, C-flow, DYNAFORM, opteris and MAGMAsoft, which have been successfully applied to the design of stamping dies.
The manufacturing technology of large-scale stamping dies represented by automobile panel dies has made great progress. Dongfeng Automobile Company mold factory, FAW mold center and other mold manufacturers have been able to produce some car panel dies. In addition, many research institutions and colleges carry out the research and development of mold technology. After years of hard work, remarkable progress has been made in Die CAD / CAE / CAM technology, and contributions have been made in improving mold quality and shortening mold design and manufacturing cycle.
For example, KMAS software, which is independently developed by the automobile panel forming technology institute of Jilin University, CAD / CAE / CAM software for injection mold, automobile panel mold and progressive die developed by the State Key Laboratory of die technology of Huazhong University of technology, the cold stamping die developed by the National Engineering Research Center of die CAD and the cold stamping die developed by the fine blanking research center of Shanghai Jiaotong University The CAD software of fine blanking die has many users in the domestic mould industry.
Although China's die and mould industry has made remarkable development in the past ten years, there is still a big gap between China and developed countries in many aspects. For example, the proportion of precision machining equipment in mold processing equipment is relatively low; the popularization rate of CAD / CAE / CAM technology is not high; many advanced mold technology is not widely used, and so on, resulting in a considerable part of large, precision, complex and long-life mold rely on import.
Future development trend
The development of mould technology should meet the requirements of 'short delivery time', 'high precision', 'good quality' and 'low price'.
(1) Fully promote CAD / CAM / CAE Technology
Die CAD / CAM / CAE technology is the development direction of die design and manufacturing. With the development and progress of computer software, the conditions for popularizing CAD / CAM / CAE technology are basically mature. All enterprises will strengthen the training and service of CAD / CAM technology, and further expand the application scope of CAE technology. The development of computer and network makes it possible for CAD / CAM / CAE technology to be popularized across regions, enterprises and institutes in the whole industry, realize the re integration of technical resources and make virtual manufacturing possible.
(2) High speed milling
The development of high-speed milling in foreign countries has greatly improved the machining efficiency and obtained extremely high surface finish. In addition, it can also process high hardness module, and has the advantages of low temperature rise and small thermal deformation. The development of high-speed milling technology has injected new vitality into the manufacturing of large-scale cavity mold in automobile and household appliance industries. It has developed to higher agility, intelligence and integration.
(3) Mould scanning and digital system
High speed scanner and mold scanning system provide many functions from model or object scanning to processing the desired model, which greatly shortens the development and manufacturing cycle of mold. Some rapid scanning systems can be installed on the existing CNC milling machines and machining centers to realize fast data acquisition, automatic generation of processing programs of different CNC systems and CAD data of different formats, which can be used for 'reverse engineering' of mold manufacturing industry. Mold scanning system has been successfully applied in automobile, motorcycle, household appliances and other industries. It is believed that it will play a greater role in the Tenth Five Year Plan period.
(4) EDM milling
EDM milling technology, also known as EDM generative machining technology, is a new technology to replace the traditional machining cavity with formed electrode. It is a simple tubular electrode with high speed rotation for 3D or 2D contour machining (like NC milling), so it is no longer necessary to manufacture complex shaped electrode, which is obviously a significant development in the field of EDM. Foreign machine tools using this technology have been used in mold processing. It is expected that this technology will be developed.
(5) Improve the standardization of mould
It is estimated that the coverage rate of die standard parts in China has reached about 30%. In developed countries, it is about 80%.
(6) High quality materials and advanced surface treatment technology
It is very necessary to select high quality steel and apply corresponding surface treatment technology to improve the service life of dies.
