Don't focus on product design and ignore plastic mold manufacturing.
When some users develop products or trial production of new products, they often only focus on product research and development in the initial stage, ignoring the communication with the plastic mold making unit. After the product design plan is initially determined, contacting the mold manufacturer in advance has two advantages:
1. It can ensure that the designed product has a good forming process, and the finalized design will not be modified because the parts are difficult to process.
2. The mold maker can make design preparations in advance to prevent ill-consideration in a hurry and affect the construction period.
3. To make high-quality plastic molds, only the close cooperation between the supply and demand sides can ultimately reduce the cost and shorten the cycle.
Don't just look at 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 material, physical and chemical properties, mechanical strength, dimensional accuracy, surface finish, service life, economy, etc., different types of molds are selected for forming.
2. Molds with high precision requirements need to be processed by high-precision CNC machine tools, and mold materials and forming processes have strict requirements, and CAD/CAE/CAM mold technology is also required to design and analyze.
3. Some parts have special requirements during molding, and the mold also needs to use advanced processes such as hot runner, gas-assisted molding, and nitrogen cylinder.
4. Manufacturers should have CNC, EDM, wire cutting machine tools and CNC copy milling equipment, high-precision grinding machines, high-precision three-coordinate measuring instruments, computer design and related software.
5. Generally, large-scale stamping dies (such as automobile cover molds) should consider whether the machine tool has a side blanking mechanism, or even side lubricant, multi-station progressive, etc. In addition to stamping tonnage, punching times, feeding devices, machine tools and mold protection devices should also be considered.
6. The manufacturing methods and processes of the above-mentioned molds are not possessed and mastered by every enterprise. When choosing a cooperative manufacturer, you must understand its processing capabilities, not only by looking at hardware equipment, but also by combining management level, processing experience and technical strength.
7. For the same set of molds, there is sometimes a big gap between the quotations of different manufacturers. You should not pay more than the value of the mold, nor less than the cost of the mold. Mold manufacturers, like you, want to make reasonable profits in their business. Ordering a set of molds at a much lower price can be the start of trouble. Users must start from their own requirements and comprehensively measure.