What is mold making process?

The Mold Project is included following but not limited:

Mold Design > Material Purchase > Rough Machine > Precision Machine > Mold Fitting > Surface Finish>Mold Trial > Pre-production > Packing and Shipping

1) Mold Design(3-7 days)

  • *DFM(Design For Manufacturing-it is draft design with Mold Flow Analysis if custom require.
  • *2D Mold Layout will send to customer for approved(NG if not).Design gate and runner, parting line, draft analysis, cavities layout, ejector system, cooling system, venting, lifter or slider, and other component etc.
  • *3D Mold Design and NC programming.

2) Material Purchase

Mold base and steel can be ordered once design is confirm, accessories especially hot runner system will take much more time to arrive.

3) Mold Processing and Weekly Report

    • *Rough machine-The steel need first to be sized, milling, drilling, lather are the main process way to get the rough shape or the cavity /core. Normally 0.15-0.3 mm steel left for precision machining later.
    • *Heat treatment-After rough machining, internal stress would be created during machining, do heat treatment to get certain hardness and internal balance, such as 1.2343 or H13, it usually need to be harden to HRC40+, some of the steel don’t need it, like P20, 1.2312 etc.
    • *CNC precision machining-To get designed dimension, the CNC process of precision machining is much slower than rough machining.
    • *Wire cut and EDM-Wire cut is a process specially for holes (ejector pin holes, lifters, inserts), EDM is particularly for some of the area that can’t not be machined by normal way, either too small to allow the cutting tool work properly, or it’s too narrow to get there.

4) Mold Surface Finish

  • *Finish and fitting- it’s a job rely heavily on experiences and skills, some of the part might need to be polished to fit. The core and cavity should be polishing for mold release, some time it need to make texture, high polish or engraving.

5) Mold Trial

Everything run as schedule. Time for mold trial now. Make sure molded parts samples quantity, and plastic resin is right. Mold trial report and video will send later. All of this procedure need to be track closely if you don’t want to cause any delay on next step.

* Plastic material – What type of material will be used to mold the parts? This also weighs heavily on the type of mold material you will choose. For example, if the resin is abrasive, i.e. is a glass-filled material, metal-filled, etc., a softer mold material will mean greater wear on the cores and cavities, more maintenance and shorter life of the mold. Unfilled commodity-grade materials such as polypropylene, low-density polyethylene, and even unfilled engineering-grade materials such as polycarbonate or ABS, generally are okay for a softer grade of mold material.

* Number of parts required – How many parts will you require per month? per year? If that number is low – 100,000 parts or less annually – then you can probably get away with a softer mold material. However, if you require five million parts annually, you might want to look at hardened tool steels to meet these requirements.

If you still not sure, just email us, then we offer best solution base on mold making and plastic molding cut down the cost but reach to requirement.

6) Pre-production molding, Packing and Shipping

Congratulation! Mold trial is success and sample is approved. Pre-production molding takes about 2 hours if require. Make sure it is using anti-rust spray during packing. Enjoy the great job!

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