In the past two decades, Chinese mold manufacturing technology has made a qualitative leap and grown from small to large rapidly. With the development of auto industry, independent brands have entered the middle and high-end, meanwhile, new energy vehicles have emerged. China has entered the world ranking, The 6 strong mold countries are: China, Germany, the United States, Italy, Singapore,Japan. today we are going to analyze the mold advantages of each country.
Germany has always been known for its exquisite processing skills and production of precision machinery and tools, For the complex industrial field of mold, after many years of practical exploration, German mold manufacturers have formed a consensus that the entire industry must be coordinated, work together, tap the development potential, jointly carry forward the spirit of innovation, common technological progress, learn from each other's strengths, and play well the overall advantage is the success of the industry. In addition, in order to meet the needs of the rapid development of new products today, not only large companies have established new development centers in Germany, but many small and medium-sized enterprises have also done so, actively doing R&D for customers. In terms of research, Germany has always been very active and has become an important basis for its undefeated international market. In the fierce competition, the German mold industry has maintained a strong position in the international market for many years, and the export rate has been stable at about 33%. According to the statistics of the German Machinery and Mould Industry Organization-the German Machinery Manufacturers Association (VDMA) Tool and Mould Association, there are about 5000 mold companies in Germany. In 2003, the German mold output value reached 4.8 billion euros. Among them, there are 90 (VDMA) member mold companies, and the output value of these 90 key mold companies accounts for 90% of the German mold output value.
The production technology level of Italian mold enterprises is first-class in the world. the application of high technology to mold design and manufacturing has become a powerful guarantee for the rapid manufacture of high-quality molds in Italy. In Italian mold companies, CAD/CAE/CAM, high-speed cutting processing technology, rapid prototyping technology and rapid mold making technology have become widely used technologies.
The Italian plastics and rubber processing machinery and mold manufacturing industry is one of the 10 special machinery manufacturing industries of the Italian Machinery Manufacturing Alliance, and the Italian plastics and rubber processing machinery and mold manufacturing industry has more than 500 European patents. , While providing customers with various value-added services. Italian mold companies have annual sales of more than US$100,000 per capita. At present, the output value of the Italian plastics and rubber processing machinery and mold manufacturing industry accounts for 16.5% of the total output value of the 10 industries of the Machinery Manufacturing Alliance. At the same time, the export destination of Italian plastics and rubber processing machinery and mold products is still mainly in the EU, with the export value accounting for 47% of the total export share.
Italian mold enterprises have advanced technology and advanced management, so that the large, precise, and complex molds they produce have played an extremely important role in promoting the development of industries such as automobiles, electronics, communications, and home appliances.
There are about 7,000 mold companies in the United States, and more than 90% are small companies with less than 50 employees. Due to the high degree of industrialization, the US mold industry has long become a mature high-tech industry and is at the forefront of the world. American mold steel has achieved standardized production and supply. CAD/CAE/CAM technology is commonly used in mold design and manufacturing. Advanced technology is equipped with processing technology, inspection and testing. The development of large, complex, precise, long-life and high-performance molds has reached a leading level. But since the 1990s, the US economy has faced major adjustments and changes in the post-industrial era, as well as strong international competition—from cost pressures, time pressures, and competitive pressures.
Japanese mold industry has maintained the status of the world's first mold power and mold power. At the peak of 1998, its domestic mold output value reached 1,8955 billion yen. However, in the ten years since then, although the annual output value has been rising or falling, the overall situation has stagnated and has not recovered or exceeded the level of 1998, and the number of mold production enterprises has also decreased year by year. year. In addition to controlling core technologies in many areas, Japan also controls the most profitable link in the industrial chain, allowing most joint ventures in other markets in the world to profit only from the assembly link. This "industrial construction country" economic model is also worth learning by Chinese companies.
Singapore is a small country with a population of only 3 million. In the 1980s and 1990s, the government attached importance to and supported the development of precision molds, and issued many policies to enable the mold industry to grow rapidly and promote the rapid development of Singapore's economy. Singapore has more than 1,000 enterprises of various types of molds and precision machining, and the annual output value of molds exceeds 4.5 billion yuan. It has a very important influence and role in the Asian mold industry. There are more than 10 listed companies in the mold industry. More than 65% of the molds produced by companies in Singapore are for the IT electronics related industries. The molds produced are not large, but they are all high-precision and high-level molds. Singapore mold companies mainly focus on semiconductor frame/package molds, metal stamping molds, plastic molds, silicone rubber molds, etc.
In recent years, the structure of my country's mold industry, whether it is enterprise organizational structure, product structure, technical structure and import and export structure, has been developing in the direction of rationalization. In order to update and improve the level of equipment, mold processing companies need to import billions of equipment every year. The investment in innovation and development is still insufficient. The improvement of comprehensive R&D capabilities in the mold industry has seriously lags behind the improvement of production capacity. The main problems are reflected in the weak innovation capacity; the overall efficiency is low; the degree of specialization, standardization and commercialization, Poor collaboration; mold materials and mold-related technologies are backward; the organizational structure, product structure, technical structure and import and export structure of the enterprise are not reasonable; Compared with the international advanced level, the management of mold enterprises is more backward than technology. the development trend of China's mold industry in the next ten years is: mold products are developing in the direction of large-scale, precise, complex, economic and rapid; the technical content of molds continues to increase, The mold manufacturing cycle is continuously shortened; mold production is developing in the direction of informationization, graphlessness, refinement and automation; mold companies are developing in the direction of technology integration, sophisticated equipment, product branding, management informationization, and international management.
A successful injection molding project starts with the design of a product, and then the design of precision plastic injection molds. With the need for shorter lead times and better quality today nobody has time to get it wrong, so here’s how you can get it right.
Plastic injection molds can be complicated to get 100% right off the bat, especially if you’re trying to get it done from the other side of the world. You’ve heard all the rumors about bad quality and cost cutting when it comes to China, and you’re probably scared you will get substandard products if you do place an order with a mold maker in China.
But how hard is it to get it right?
If an injection mold is correctly designed with expert drawings explicitly specifying all the tolerances, including the materials, steel grades, hardness and surface finish requirements, then a plastic injection mold can be built anywhere in the world.
True some companies have had problems in the past
Cost, it all comes down to the bottom line! Companies focus on cutting cost so much that they stare themselves blind at the actual good quality molds you can produce in China.
So why all the hype, are the Chinese dishonest?
In any business, you need to dot your I’s and cross your T’s, and you can’t generalize and call an entire country dishonest. As unlikely as it may sound it all comes down to communication, more precisely the breakdown of communication.
China prides themselves on producing excellent quality at the best pricing in the world, but if you don’t specify exactly what you require out of a mold, what materials to be used and merely accept cheap pricing for what it is, you’re going to burn your fingers. As the old adage goes “buying cheap is buying expensive.”
1. Know Where to Start
Firstly, you must understand that top quality molds are produced daily in China. But you need to follow a few “ground rules” to make sure you get top quality at the right price.
You must CLEARLY specify your requirements and only work with mold makers in China that you’ve vetted properly.
The drawings of your mold design need to be on point and drawn up by a professional, and there can be no margin for error. If you start your Chinese mold making communication and process with a well-defined drawing you’ve already won 90% of the battle.
Cost is key and it’s all about the bottom line, but business is business!
For a plastic mold making company to quote 50% less than that of its nearest competitor for the SAME plastic injection mold, they have to cut their costs to below 50% of their competitors. This is typically reflected (or not reflected at all) in material selection, surface finishes, material hardness, lack of precision grinding of mating surfaces, and lack of close tolerances in wall thickness on thin wall products.
All of these problems can be avoided by the clear statement of specifications at the RFQ stage. The problem with obtaining quotes from mold makers in China is that when rigorous specifications are required, the price differential between quality mold makers (irrespective of global location) becomes minimal. The total cost of ownership when outsourcing plastic injection molds should reflect all of the costs associated with testing and ultimately accepting a mold produced in a foreign country, and the additional precautions required to ensure that no technical errors are made because of language barriers.
There are a large variety of standard mold makers in China, and the most difficult thing is to choose the best fitting mold maker for a company from the onset. This can be a tedious process, and sometimes the results can be somewhat underwhelming.
Don’t despair!
Even though it’s relatively easy to find a trusted, well-known mold maker in Germany, UK, Japan or the US, finding a mold maker in China worth their salt (with reasonable pricing) is not as difficult as you might think.
In a previous blog, we looked at debunking the Bad Quality “Made in China” Myths, outlining why the stigma around this is often misconstrued.
But for now let’s move on to what you can do to ensure world-class molds, and keep them safe.