Known as the "mother of industry", the earliest application of molds can be traced back to ancient times, making an indelible contribution on the road of industrial development.However, with the development of science and technology and the upgrading of machine tools, the mould industry is also facing the impact from various internal and external factors.
Raw material prices are rising and manufacturing costs are rising
Basically, the whole manufacturing industry will be directly affected by the price of upstream raw materials, especially the mould industry.In recent years, the price of raw materials has been rising, and it has always been high, due to the impact of rising mineral prices, labor, transportation and land costs.
For raw materials is very dependent on the mold profession first hit, rising raw materials, means of mould manufacturing enterprise production costs rise, the cost of competition is an important way of competition between enterprises, so to speak.Under the pressure of enterprise operating costs, reducing marketing costs may become one of the options for enterprises to reduce operating costs.Due to the change of the price of raw materials, make a lot of mould manufacturing enterprise was done before the break even or even at a loss to receive big orders, to enterprise's capital turnover and development caused a heavy blow.
However, the rise in raw material prices is a double-edged sword for companies and industries.At the enterprise level, the rise of raw materials is not a rare opportunity for high-quality enterprises in industries with more scientific management, lean management and high efficiency.These enterprises have a reasonable product structure and a large proportion of high value-added products. Besides, their products have certain technical barriers and are not easy to be copied.On the contrary, the rise of raw materials will also speed up the elimination of low-end and low-quality enterprises. It may be a disaster for enterprises with still extensive management and serious homogeneity of products.Early, because the great coated with abrasive market demand, low barriers to entry, some enterprises was originally on the strategy of low price competition struggled on the meager profit, in the current situation, it's no order, order more, the already meager profits, being eaten by the rising cost of materials all day will be more sad.
3D printing puts pressure on the traditional mold industry
As a mature emerging technology, 3D printing has developed rapidly in recent years.Various research results keep emerging, which have caused great pressure on the mould industry. In some fields, they even start to subvert the mould technology and form direct competition with it.
The following editor briefly introduces the differences between traditional molds and 3D printing.First of all, in the production application, the mold must withstand wear and tear, and economic benefits.As a result, most of the mould adopts steel, some even made of carbide and 3 d printing is according to user's actual needs to consider the most suitable for printing materials, the current 3 d printing materials is very extensive, and increasingly with the application of the new material.Secondly, the traditional molds are drawn by 3D modeling software such as pro-e, and the final molding effect is achieved through constant adjustment. The molds are made by tools such as machine tools.3D printing adopts the mode of adding materials, which superimposes the materials layer by layer and finally forms the desired model.
The second is the use of products, traditional mold injection, die-casting, rubber and stamping products;Currently, 3D printing is mainly used for manufacturing small and complex parts. Large parts need to be pieced together through integral printing.Secondly, the strength and precision of products. After years of development and mature technology of traditional molds, the strength can be confirmed according to users' requirements, and the precision is also high.The strength and the precision of 3 d printing, and many comprehensive factors, such as the stand or fall of the selected material, the precision of 3 d model diagram and the stand or fall of 3 d printers, accuracy of the product determines the final out, an acceptable strength.
Finally, processing efficiency and time.The processing speed of traditional mould is fast, the economy of mass production is good, but the economy of single piece and small batch is poor.While 3D printing takes a long time to form, the economy of mass production is poor, and the economy of single piece and small batch is good.
Above all, 3 d printing is not suitable for mass production at present, traditional mould manufacturing still occupy obvious advantage in the mass production in our country, in a batch is not high product manufacturing, precision requirement, the mould have no alternative.However, the application of 3D printing in non-batch, precision and cutting-edge product manufacturing has a great prospect, such as aerospace, medical equipment and other fields.3 d technology for now only for single small batch modalities, and moulds for is massive, standard part, did not contradict the two places, but many places can complement each other.
Every industry will be affected and impacted by various internal and external factors in the course of development. Of course, the mould industry is no exception.However, in the face of difficulties and obstacles, mold manufacturing enterprises should actively change, unite as one to take the initiative to meet the coming of the era of intelligent manufacturing, enhance product gold content, reduce energy consumption of production technology, make domestic mould industry has become one of the gold business card made in China.