Two. Development prospect and trend analysis of mould industry (I) Development prospect analysis of mould industry 1. The broad prospect of the international mould market provides China mould industry with greater development space. With the continuous expansion of mold application field and higher and higher requirements in application field, it has become a universal law that the mold industry develops faster than other manufacturing industries. At present, the world mold market is in short supply. In recent years, the total market value is between 60 billion and 65 billion US dollars, while the export of molds in China is less than 8%, which can be completely expanded during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period. At the same time, with the increasingly obvious development trend of economic globalization, the mold manufacturing industry is gradually shifting to China, and the trend of multinational groups purchasing molds in China is increasingly obvious. Foreign capital and private capital continue to be optimistic about the mold industry in China. Therefore, after China's entry into WTO, the opportunities of China mold industry outweigh the challenges. During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, the international mould market has a broad prospect, and China mould industry 2. China is faced with the dual pressures of technological advantages of developed countries and price advantages of developing countries. Mold enterprises in developed countries have competitive advantages in middle and high-grade molds by virtue of their technical advantages and strength. As they gradually enter China, they pose a great challenge to the mold industry in China. India, Thailand and some countries in Eastern Europe have also developed rapidly in recent years, and their mold prices also have strong competitive advantages. The cost and price advantages of China mould industry will gradually weaken and eventually disappear. Therefore, we must make great efforts in technology, management and personnel training, actively introduce foreign advanced mold manufacturing technology, enhance the development ability of high-end mold products, adjust the mold product structure, and continuously improve the international competitiveness of our mold products. 3. The rapid economic growth in China provides macro support for the development of mould industry. During the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, China's national economy will continue to maintain a relatively fast development speed, which provides reliable macro support for the development of the mold industry. Cars, electronic information, home appliances, office equipment, machinery and building materials industry, aerospace, power tools and so on are in great demand. Take home appliances and electronic information industry as an example, a refrigerator needs about 150 parts produced by molds, and * * * needs about 350 sets of molds. A fully automatic washing machine needs more than 150 sets of molds; An air conditioner only needs 20 sets of plastic molds; Each type of computer needs about 30 sets of molds, plus its supporting printer, a single computer needs more than 20 sets of molds; There will be tens of millions of laptops and network set-top boxes. At present, because most models are developed abroad, there are many imported molds. With the improvement of China's independent development ability, the demand for molds in this area will also increase greatly. It can be predicted that during the 11th Five-Year Plan period, the mold industry in China will develop rapidly in a good macro environment. (II) Development trend analysis 1. Globalization of mold market and further shortening of mold production cycle is one of the most important characteristics of mold industry today. Buyers and manufacturers of molds are all over the world. The globalization of mold industry makes mold processing enterprises with simple production technology and low precision migrate to countries with relatively backward technology and low productivity, while mold production enterprises in developed countries are positioned to produce high-level molds. Mold manufacturers must face the global market competition, at the same time, mold manufacturers have to do everything possible to speed up production progress, and strive to simplify and cancel unnecessary production processes, and the production cycle of molds will be further shortened.

2. Mold CAD/CAM is developing towards integration, intelligence and networking.

The functional modules of the software are more and more complete, and each functional module adopts the same data model, which realizes the comprehensive management and sharing of information and supports the whole process of mold design, manufacturing, assembly, inspection, testing and production management. Some serialized softwares include geometric modeling of surfaces/solids, engineering drawing of complex shapes, advanced rendering of industrial design, expert system of mold design, CAM of complex shapes, automatic programming system of artistic modeling and carving, reverse engineering system and online measurement system of complex shapes, etc. Three-dimensional, paperless design, analysis and manufacturing of molds enable the new generation of mold software to design molds with three-dimensional and intuitive feelings. The three-dimensional digital model can be conveniently used for CAE analysis of product structure, evaluation of mold manufacturability, NC machining, simulation of forming process and information management and sharing. At the same time, with the globalization and internationalization of competition, cooperation, production and management, and the rapid development of computer software and hardware technology, it is both necessary and possible to apply virtual design and agile manufacturing technology to the mold industry through the network.

3. High-speed machining, hard milling and compound machining technology will have a great impact on mold production.

With the development of precision and large-scale molds, ultra-precision machining technology with machining accuracy exceeding 1 micron, combined with current collection, chemistry, ultrasonic and laser technology, has broad prospects in the future mold manufacturing. High-speed machining can make the workpiece get a smooth surface and save machining time. The typical step is only 0.0254mm, while the cusp is only 0.00 1mm high. The surface of most high-speed machined workpieces is very smooth and does not need further machining by assemblers. At present, the manufacturers of machining tools are keen to produce machining centers specially designed for high-speed machining. Adopting high-speed machining technology to reduce or omit the locksmith process in the United States is a measure with considerable benefits, and this technology is also very popular in Europe and Japan. In addition, it is another important trend to process the mold cavity with completely hardened materials. The light cutting with high spindle speed and small tool radius generates enough torque, which can be used to process metal materials with hardness as high as 64HRC. Because heat treatment is not needed, tempering and grinding after conventional heat treatment are also unnecessary to offset the geometric deformation caused by heat treatment. This technology is very popular in Japan, and now it is widely concerned in the United States and is spreading to Europe.

With the rapid development of various new technologies, automatic mold processing systems have appeared abroad. The system is composed of several machine tools, equipped with a matching positioning fixture or positioning plate, a complete set of machine tools, a tool numerical control library and a numerical control flexible synchronization system, and has a real-time quality monitoring system.

4. Mould products in China will develop in the direction of large-scale, precision and standardization.

On the one hand, the increasingly large-scale mold parts and the development of "one mold with multiple cavities" to improve production efficiency lead to the increasingly large-scale mold; On the other hand, the rapid development of electronic information industry and medicine has brought miniaturization and precision of parts, and the machining accuracy tolerance of some molds is required to be below1μ m. In addition, the multifunctional compound mold will be further developed. In addition to stamping parts, the new multifunctional compound die also undertakes assembly tasks such as lamination, tapping, riveting and locking, and the production efficiency will be further improved.

The coverage rate of standard parts of molds in developed countries abroad is generally around 80%. With the development of China's mold industry, mold standardization will be strengthened, the degree of mold standardization will be further improved, and the application and production of mold standard parts will be greatly developed during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period.

5. Hot runner, gas-assisted mold and high-pressure injection molding technology will be further developed.

Mould with hot runner technology can improve productivity and parts quality, and can greatly save raw materials. More than 50% of plastic molds produced by many foreign plastic mold factories use hot runner technology, and some of them reach more than 80%, with obvious effects. Gas-assisted injection molding has the advantages of low injection pressure, small warping deformation of products, good surface quality and easy formation of products with large wall thickness differences, which can greatly reduce the cost on the premise of ensuring product quality. High pressure injection molding can force the resin to shrink and increase the dimensional stability of plastic parts; In addition, injection compression molding technology can make the local internal strain of molded parts smaller, and can obtain thick-walled molded parts with less shrinkage cavities. It can also inject resin into the narrow parts of plastic parts, and excellent products can be obtained with less injection force. These technologies are gradually being popularized.

6. The prospect of rapid and economical molds is very broad.

With the advent of the era of multi-variety and small batch production, people require that the production cycle of molds be as short as possible, so fast and economical molds will have broad development prospects. It is predicted that in 2 1 century, the proportion of industrial production will reach more than 75%, such as using various superplastic materials to make molds, and using epoxy, polyester or fillers such as metal and glass to make simple molds. Rapid and economical molds mainly include rapid prototyping technology, surface forming technology, casting technology, cold extrusion and superplastic forming technology, dieless multi-point forming technology, KEVRON steel strip blanking technology, and rapid manufacturing technology of mold blanks.

7. High-quality mold materials and advanced surface treatment technology will be further valued. Due to improper selection and materials, the dies will fail prematurely, accounting for more than 45% of the failed dies. Therefore, it is very important to select high-quality steel and apply corresponding surface treatment technology to improve the service life of die, improve the purity, isotropy, density and uniformity of steel, develop die steel with higher performance or special performance, develop the varieties and specifications of die steel, and expand other high-quality die materials such as cemented carbide and ceramic materials. Using aluminum alloy as mold material will shorten the mold manufacturing cycle and reduce the mold cost, which will develop rapidly in the rapid and economical mold.

The main trend of die surface treatment is: from single element infiltration to multi-element infiltration and composite infiltration, from general diffusion to CVD, PVD, PCVD, ion infiltration, ion implantation and so on. Available coatings include TiC, TiN, TiAlN, CrN, Cr7C3, W2C, etc. At the same time, the heat treatment method has also developed from atmospheric heat treatment to vacuum heat treatment. At present, more and more attention has been paid to laser strengthening, glow plasma nitriding and electroplating (brush plating) anti-corrosion strengthening technology.