Don’t just focus on product planning and ignore plastic mold making.
When some users are developing products or trial production of new products, they often only focus on product development and development at the initial stage, ignoring the communication with the plastic mold making unit. After the product planning program is confirmed, there are two benefits of early contact with the mold manufacturer:
1. It can ensure that the planned products have a good forming process, and will not modify the stereotyped plan because the parts are difficult to process.
2. The mold maker can make planning preparations early to prevent inadequate consideration in a hurry and affect the construction period.
3. To produce high-quality plastic molds, as long as the supply and demand sides cooperate closely, the ability will ultimately reduce costs and shorten the cycle.
Don’t just look at the price, but consider all aspects of quality, cycle and service.
- 1. There are many types of molds, which can be roughly divided into ten categories. According to different requirements of parts data, physical and chemical functions, mechanical strength, dimensional accuracy, surface finish, service life, economy, etc., select different types of molds for forming.
- 2. Molds with high precision requirements need to be processed with high-precision CNC machine tools, and mold raw materials and forming processes have strict requirements, and CAD / CAE / CAM mold skills must also be used for planning and analysis.
- 3. Because some parts have special requirements during molding, the mold also needs to use advanced processes such as warm runners, gas-assisted molding, and nitrogen cylinders.
- 4. The manufacturer should have CNC, EDM, WEDM and CNC copy milling equipment, high-precision grinding machine, high-precision three-coordinate measuring instrument, computer planning and related software.
- 5. In general, large stamping dies (such as automobile cover parts dies) should consider whether the machine tool has a crimping organization, or even edge lubricant, multi-station progressive, etc. In addition to stamping tonnage, it is necessary to consider punching times, feeding equipment, machine tools and mold protection equipment.
- 6. The manufacturing methods and processes of the above molds are not possessed and grasped by every enterprise. When selecting a cooperative manufacturer, you must understand its processing capabilities, not only the hardware equipment, but also the management level, processing experience, and skills.
- 7. For the same set of molds, quotes from different manufacturers sometimes vary greatly. You should not pay more than the cost of the mold, nor should it be less than the cost of the mold. Mould manufacturers are like you, and they must make reasonable profits in their affairs. Ordering a set of molds with much lower quotations would be a troublesome start. Users must proceed from their own requirements and make a comprehensive measurement.
Prevent multi-head collaboration, try to make one-stop plastic mold making and product processing.
- 1. With qualified molds (qualified test pieces), batches of qualified products may not necessarily be produced. This is mainly related to the selection of the machine tool for the parts, the forming process (forming temperature, forming time, etc.) and the essence of the operator’s skills.
- 2. If you have a good mold, you also need to have good forming and processing. If the conditions are not met, it is necessary to select one party to assume full responsibility.