New process, new concept and new mode of mold industry

The mold is the basic process equipment for industrial production and is called "the mother of industry". The mold industry is the basic industry of the national economy. It is an internationally recognized key industry. It is also a labor-intensive and technology-intensive industry with large investments and slow returns. According to the report of the International Production Association, 75% of rough-processing industrial parts and 50% of finished parts are formed by molds, and most plastic products are also formed by molds. As the basic industry of the national economy, molds are used in various industries such as machinery, automobiles, electronics, communications, household appliances, metallurgy, and construction, and have a wide range of applications.

Mold processing technology

General machining of molds

Removal processing refers to the method of removing material to obtain a mold body and a cavity. Most of them are derived from traditional processing and based on them, mainly including mechanical processing, electrical processing (EDM, wire cutting, etc.) and other special processing.

About 90% of molds are mainly manufactured by milling, turning, grinding and other machining methods. They are mainly used to complete the final processing of mold-assisted parts, as well as the pre-processing and final processing of mold-working parts.

(1) Cutting and High-speed Milling Technology

Traditional machining cutting methods, such as turning, milling, planing, inserting, drilling, etc., can be used for mold processing without exception. High-speed milling is the most widely used cutting technology in the current cutting technology. The tools used include end mills and ball end mills with indexable inserts. This type of tool is most famous for the products of Kennametal of the United States, and China has begun to use such products. The further improvement and promotion of high-speed milling technology is a research focus of mold manufacturing technology in recent years. High-speed milling has many advantages such as low temperature rise, small cutting force, stable machining, good machining quality, high machining efficiency (5 to 10 times that of ordinary milling), and the ability to machine hard materials (<60HRC), etc. Processing is increasingly valued.

(2) Grinding

Forming grinding is a method of finishing a work surface and has the advantages of high precision and high efficiency. In the manufacture of molds, forming grinding is mainly used for finishing punches, split dies and electric discharge machining electrodes. Forming grinding can be performed on a profile grinder or a surface grinder.

(3) Grinding and polishing

The surface of the machined workpiece, regardless of its surface roughness, must be re-polished. There are three ways to smooth the rough surface: remove material, reconfigure material, and add material. Grinding and polishing of molds are still mainly manual or manual polishing with electric or pneumatic equipment, which has low efficiency, labor intensity, and unstable quality. The traditional method of polishing is to remove material from the sidewalls of the cavity to flatten the surface. The problem of finishing the mold surface has not been solved so far.

Die machining

Electrical discharge machining in electrical machining technology plays an important role in the manufacture of molds. The principle is to remove excess material based on the phenomenon of electrical corrosion during pulsed EDM between the tool electrode and the workpiece electrode. Among them, WEDM and EDM are the main components.

(1) Wire EDM

Wire EDM is the use of spark discharge to melt or vaporize metals and remove the melted or gasified metal to enable the machining of various shapes of metal parts. Wire cutting is used to process precision and small-sized, complex-shaped die parts with special materials. It solves many machining problems that are difficult to machine or cannot be solved at all. The more complex the die is, and the finer the die, especially the carbide die, its economy. The more significant the effect.

Slow walking wire cutting is a major development in recent years. With the development of electroless pulse power supply, optimized energy pulse power supply, deionized water ion control, and a series of precision machining technologies, the development of the wire cutting process has reached a new stage.

(2) EDM

EDM is the use of the method of spark discharge, the shape of the tool electrode is copied on the mold blank to form the cavity of the replica forming process. Electrodes can be obtained by car, milling, planing, grinding, hot and cold forming, flame spraying or electroforming. The EDM process has an important position in today's mold manufacturing industry. It can be used to machine workpieces with complex shapes and fine dimensions that cannot be machined or difficult to machine with conventional methods in steel blocks and sintered metals, and can be selected and used correctly. The electrode can make the mold manufacturing cost about 40% lower than the conventional method.

Introduction of other special processing methods for molds

Unlike traditional cutting methods, special machining is a method of machining with mechanical energy or indirectly with sound energy or heat energy. Special processing can be divided into abrasive flow processing, jet processing, hydraulic processing, low-stress grinding, heat-assisted processing, ultrasonic processing, water spray processing and other processing methods, suitable for cutting, punching, grinding, polishing, deburring, Processing areas such as etching, grinding, broaching, and boring. In the general use of metal cutting tools is difficult to handle the occasion should adopt mechanical special processing, it is the use of water, abrasives, ultrasonic, thermal energy and other precision machining of the workpiece.

Rapid Prototyping and Rapid Prototyping (RP/RT) Technology

Rapid Prototyping (RP) is a new manufacturing technology based on the principle of dispersion and stacking. According to the three-dimensional design model of the workpiece formed on the computer, it is sliced ​​into layers to obtain the two-dimensional contour of the cross section of each layer, and then follow these contours. The forming head selectively cures one layer of liquid resin (or cuts a layer of paper, sinters a layer of powder material, sprays a layer of hot melt material or adhesive). In recent years, due to the rapid development of rapid prototyping technology, a new field has emerged - rapid tooling (RT). RT uses RP technology to make molds directly or indirectly, because it does not need to use traditional processing machines, only traditional processing methods. 10% to 30% of the man-hours and 20% to 35% of the cost can directly produce product samples or molds, so that the mold manufacturing time and manufacturing costs are greatly reduced.

Directly making a mold with a rapid prototyping machine

Because some of the parts produced directly by the rapid prototyping machine have good mechanical strength and stability, they can be directly used to make certain molds. For example, a metal mold can be made by selectively sintering a metal powder that surrounds a thermoplastic binder with an SLS (selective sintering) rapid forming machine, and infiltrating a second metal (such as copper) in the pores.

Making a master mold with a rapid prototyping machine, copying a soft mold

The master mold can be made by a rapid prototyping machine, and soft materials such as wax, silicone rubber, epoxy resin, and polyurethane can be poured to form a soft mold. Among them, wax molds are used for investment casting. Silicone rubber molds, epoxy resin molds, etc. can be used for making injection molds or low-melting-point alloy casting molds.

Making a master mold with a rapid prototyping machine, duplicating a hard mold

Using a rapid prototyping machine to make a master mold, or a soft mold that can be replicated, cast gypsum, ceramics, metal matrix composites, and metals to form a hard mold (such as stamping and stretching of various casting molds, injection molds, and wax molds). Mold) to mass produce plastic parts and metal parts. This type of mold has good mechanical processing properties and can be subjected to local cutting for higher precision, or ingot blocks, cooling systems, gating systems, and the like. The stamping of a wax mold cast from a metal matrix composite material has a die life of 1 000 to 10 000 pieces.

Application of CAD/CAE/CAM Technology

CAD/CAE/CAM includes conceptual design, optimization design, finite element analysis, computer simulation, computer aided drawing, and computer-aided design process management. Application of CAD technology may design the general structure of the product, and then through the CAE technology for structural analysis, feasibility assessment and optimization design. After adopting the CAD/CAE/CAM integration technology, it is generally not necessary to perform prototype experiments. Using geometric modeling technology, the shape of the workpiece can be accurately and realistically displayed on the computer screen. The finite element analysis program can detect the mechanical properties of the workpiece. . Mold CAD/CAE/CAM technology is a key technology for transforming traditional mold production methods, which can significantly shorten the mold design and manufacturing cycle, reduce production costs, and improve product quality.

At present, the world's largest CAD/CAE/CAM software system includes the serialization software of the British company Delcam, the Cimatron system of Israel Cimatron, the United States PTC CAD/CAE/CAM integrated software system Pro/E, and Solidworks of the United States Solidworks software Physical shape surface, material forming analysis software is more successful for sheet forming (such as stamping) DYNAFORM, DEFORM for bulk forming (such as forging) and for flow forming (such as die casting, injection) MoldFlow.

Thanks to the popularization of numerical control technology, the integration of CAD/CAM in the mold industry can be realized. At present, CAD/CAE/CAM has presented the following three development trends: hybrid model, design and manufacturing system database management, and 3D program preparation on the shop floor.

Mold material, surface engineering technology and new processing concept

Mold material selection

The improper selection of materials and materials in the mold industry resulted in premature failure of the mold, accounting for more than 45% of the failed molds. In the mold materials, commonly used cold work die steel CrWMn, Cr12, Cr12MoV, 9SiCr, W18Cr4V and W6Mo5Cr4V2; commonly used new hot work die steel 5CrMnMo, 5CrNiMo and 3Cr2W8V, the United States H10, H11, H13, etc.; commonly used plastic mold Steels have prehardened and tempered steels (such as P20, T19, etc.), age-hardened steels (such as PMS, SM2, etc.), and cold-extrusion forming dies (LT steel, 8416 steel, etc.). Multi-station precision die often uses steel bonded carbide and hard alloy YG20.

Mold surface treatment technology

Mould material is the basis of the mold industry, but even if the new mold material is still difficult to meet the higher comprehensive performance requirements of the mold, the use of surface engineering technology can make up for the lack of mold materials to a certain extent. The surface engineering technology that can be used for mold manufacturing is very extensive, including traditional surface quenching technology, thermal diffusion technology, surfacing technology and hard chrome plating technology, as well as laser surface hardening technology and physical vapor deposition that have been rapidly developed in the past 20 years. Technology (PVD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), ion implantation, thermal spraying, thermal spray welding, composite plating, composite brush plating, and electroless plating. The progress of rare earth surface engineering technology and nano-surface engineering technology will certainly promote the development of surface engineering technology for mold manufacturing. In the mold surface treatment, the main trend is: from the infiltration of a single element to multi-element co-osmotic, composite permeability (such as TD method) development; from general diffusion to CVD, PVD, PCVD, ion infiltration, ion implantation and other directions; The coating used is: TiC, TiN, TiCN, TiAlN, CrN, Cr7C3, W2C, etc. At the same time, heat treatment methods are developed from atmospheric heat treatment to vacuum heat treatment. In addition, laser enhancement, glow ion nitriding technology, and electroplating (brush plating) anti-corrosion strengthening technologies are also gaining increasing attention.

New process, new concept and new model of mold industry

In the forming process, there are mainly stamping die functional compounding, superplastic forming, precision plastic forming technology, plastic mold gas assisted injection technology and hot runner technology, high pressure injection molding technology. At the same time, the mold manufacturing industry will continue to develop with related industries (such as computer technology, electronic technology, communication technology, optical technology, etc.) and in new manufacturing concepts (such as flexible manufacturing, concurrent engineering, agile manufacturing, virtual manufacturing, intelligent manufacturing, etc. Under the guidance of the company, it is developing in the direction of low cost, high efficiency, high quality, safety and environmental protection. There are also widespread adoption of standard parts and common parts production models, and the use of green design methods under the guidance of philosophy of science and technology to design molds to adapt them to sustainable development strategies.

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