Analysis of the current status and future trends of China's plastic mold development

On the whole, China's plastic molds have made great progress in terms of quantity, quality, technology, and capabilities. However, compared with the needs of national economic development and the world's advanced level, the gap is still large. Some large-scale, precise, complex and long-life medium and high-grade plastic molds still need to be imported in large quantities every year. While the total supply is in short supply, some low-grade plastic molds are oversupplied, the market is fiercely competitive, and some mid-range plastic molds with low technical content also tend to oversupply.

'S accession to the WTO has brought huge challenges to the plastic mold industry and brought more opportunities. Since China's plastic molds are mainly low-end products, the product price advantage is obvious, and some even have only 1/5 ～ 1/3 of the price of foreign products. After joining the WTO, foreign similar products have little impact on the domestic market. The export volume is increased; in terms of high-precision molds, before joining the WTO, it mainly relied on imports. After joining the WTO, it not only brings more convenience for the import of high-precision products, but also encourages more foreign investment to build in China. The factory has brought foreign advanced mold technology and management experience, which has played a role in promoting the cultivation of professional mold talents in China.

In 2006, the total output value of China's plastic molds was more than 30 billion yuan, of which the export value was about 5.8 billion yuan. According to customs statistics, in 2006 China imported a total of about 1 billion US dollars of plastic molds, or about 8.3 billion yuan. It can be concluded that in addition to its own production and use, in terms of market sales, the total demand for plastic molds in China was about 31.3 billion yuan in 2006, the total domestic mold supply was about 23 billion yuan, and the market satisfaction rate was 73.5%. Among the imported plastic molds, the most are various decorative parts molds for automobiles, various plastic shell molds for home appliances, various injection molds for communication and office equipment, extrusion molds for building materials, and Various plastic packaging molds for the electronic industry. Most of the plastic molds exported are low-end products. Because China's plastic molds have lower prices and are more competitive in the international market, the prospects for further expansion of exports are good. The average annual export growth of more than 50% in recent years is a good proof.

Although the increase in mold exports in recent years is greater than the increase in imports, the absolute increase in volume is still greater than imports, resulting in an increase in the mold trade deficit year by year. This situation has improved in 2006, and the deficit has decreased slightly. There are two main reasons for the increase in the mold foreign trade deficit: First, the sustained and rapid development of the national economy, especially the rapid development of the automotive industry has brought strong demand for molds. Some high-end molds cannot be produced domestically and have to be imported; but there are some Moulds can be produced domestically and imported. This is related to China's current tariff policy and project approval system. The second is insufficient encouragement for mold exports. Now that the mold is the same as other electromechanical products, the export tax rebate rate is only 13%, but not 17%.

From the market situation, plastic mold manufacturers should focus on the development of large-scale, precise, complex, long-life molds with high technical content, and vigorously develop the international market and develop export molds. With the rapid development of China's plastic industry, especially engineering plastics, it is foreseeable that the development speed of China's plastic mold will continue to be higher than the overall development speed of the mold industry, and the annual growth rate will remain at a level of about 20% in the next few years.

In recent years, Hong Kong-funded, Taiwan-funded, and foreign-funded enterprises have developed rapidly in mainland China. A large number of these plastic molds produced for their own use have no definite statistics, so they cannot be included in the above figures.

Plastic mold development level and market trends

In recent years, China's plastic mold manufacturing level has been greatly improved. Large plastic molds can already produce a single set of injection molds with a weight of more than 50t. The precision of precision plastic molds has reached 2μm. Small mold gear molds with high precision parts and car light molds that meet high optical requirements have also been produced. , Multi-cavity plastic molds have been able to produce a 7800-cavity plastic mold, high-speed molds have been able to produce high-speed plastic profile extrusion molds and main profiles with double-cavity co-extrusion, double-color co-extrusion Various molds such as soft and hard co-extrusion, post-co-extrusion, co-extrusion of recycled materials and low-foam steel-plastic co-extrusion. In terms of production methods, the numerical control rate of the mold enterprise equipment has been greatly improved, the application of CAD / CAE / CAM technology has been greatly expanded, high-speed processing and the adoption of advanced technologies such as RP / RT have been more and more, mold standards The coverage rate of the use of the parts and the commercialization rate of the mold have been greatly improved, and the proportion of the hot runner mold has also been greatly improved. In addition, the vigorous development of foreign-funded enterprises has further promoted the improvement of the level of plastic mold design and manufacturing and the level of enterprise management. Some enterprises have achieved information management and fully digital manufacturing.

After years of development, plastic mold development, innovation and enterprise management have shown some new development trends:

(1) Among the four elements of mold quality, delivery cycle, price and service, more and more users have put the delivery cycle in the first place. Demanding mold companies to deliver as soon as possible has become a trend. Enterprises do everything possible to improve their adaptability, improve technical level, improve equipment level, improve management level and improve efficiency, etc. are all effective means to shorten the mold production cycle.

(2) Vigorously improve the development ability, push the development work forward as far as possible, until it is involved in the product development of the mold user, and even develop before the user object is clear, and become passive to active. At present, this method has been adopted in TV and display housings, air conditioner housings, motorcycle plastic parts, etc., and mobile phone and telephone mold development has also begun to try. This approach breaks the long-standing passive situation in which the mold factory can only wait for a contract to design the mold according to user requirements.

(3) With the improvement of the design and processing level of mold enterprises, the manufacture of molds is changing from relying mainly on the skills of fitters to relying mainly on technology. This is not only a change in production methods, but also a change in production methods and a rise in concepts. This trend has led to the continuous improvement of the standardization of the mold, the mold precision is getting higher and higher, the production cycle is getting shorter and shorter, and the proportion of fitters is getting lower and lower, which ultimately promotes the continuous improvement of the overall level of the mold industry. China's mold industry currently has more than 10 national high-tech enterprises, and about 200 provincial and municipal high-tech enterprises. In line with this trend, the gradual transformation of the main backbone of mold production from technical talents to technical talents is an inevitable requirement. Of course, at present and for a long period of time, skilled talents are still very important, because after all, it is difficult for molds to completely get rid of relying on skills.

(4) Mold companies and their mold production are rapidly developing towards informatization. In the information society, as a high-level modern mold enterprise, the application of CAD / CAM alone is no longer enough. At present, many enterprises have adopted technologies such as CAE, CAT, PDM, CAPP, KBE, KBS, RE, CIMS, ERP and other advanced manufacturing technologies and virtual network technologies, which are all manifestations of informatization. The trend towards informationization has become an industry consensus.

(5) With the continuous progress of human society, the mold will inevitably develop to a wider field and a higher level. Now, the business of mold companies that can seize opportunities, develop markets, and constantly discover new growth points and companies that can produce high-tech molds is booming, with good profit levels and staff income. Therefore, mold companies should grasp this trend and continuously improve their overall quality and international competitiveness.

(6) The molds of developed industrial countries are accelerating the transfer to China, and its performance is as follows: first, factory relocation, second, investment, and third, procurement. China's mold companies should seize the opportunity to borrow and learn advanced foreign technology to speed up their development.

Main problems

Compared with the advanced level of foreign countries, China's plastic mold industry mainly has the following problems.

(1) Unbalanced development, the overall level of products is low. Although the products of individual companies have reached or are close to the international advanced level, overall, the accuracy of the mold, the surface roughness of the cavity, the production cycle, and life expectancy are still far behind the advanced foreign level. The overall level, including production methods and enterprise management, is still more than 10 years away from that of foreign industrialized countries.

(2) The technological equipment is backward and the organization and coordination ability is poor. Although some enterprises have undergone technological transformation in recent years, the level of process equipment has been relatively advanced, and the equipment level of some foreign-funded enterprises is not lagging behind foreign countries, but the process equipment of most enterprises is still relatively backward. More importantly, the poor organization and coordination capabilities of enterprises make it difficult to integrate or mobilize social resources for my use, making it difficult to undertake larger projects.

(3) Most enterprises have weak development capabilities and obvious lack of innovation capabilities. On the one hand, the proportion of technical personnel is low and the level is not high enough; on the other hand, the investment in scientific research and development is low; more importantly, the concept is backward, and there is not enough attention to innovation and development. Mold companies should not only attach importance to mold development, but also pay attention to product innovation.

(4) The contradiction between supply and demand is difficult to alleviate in the short term. In recent years, the domestic market satisfaction rate of domestic plastic molds has been less than 74%, of which the satisfaction rate of large-scale, precision and long-life molds is lower, estimated to be less than 60%. At the same time, the molds of industrially developed countries are accelerating their transfer to China, with more and more international purchases and promising international markets. Market demand is strong, production development is difficult to keep up with, and the situation of supply shortage will continue for a while.

(5) It will take time to solve the system and talent problems. In the socialist market economy, competitive industries, especially industries that depend on special users and require single-piece production like molds, have become increasingly unsuited to the original state-owned and collective ownership systems and operating mechanisms. The number and quality of talents cannot keep up with the rapid development of the industry.

Development prospects during the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period

Today, with informationization driving industrialization, we must not only see achievements, but also pay attention to backwardness, seize opportunities, and take measures to increase the level of plastic molds and integrate into the world as soon as economic globalization tends to accelerate In order to promote the rapid development of China's mold industry, two aspects should be paid attention to:

First, the relevant government policies play a very important role in promoting the development of the mold industry. From an international perspective, the mold industry in various countries has been strongly supported by the government in the early stages of development. As far as the actual situation in China is concerned, the tariffs for imported precision mold production equipment that cannot be produced in China should be reduced, and the preferential policies of some professional mold factories should be implemented. The policy guidance can accelerate the development and progress of the industry.

Second, with the development of the market, new plastic materials and diversified molding methods will inevitably continue to develop in the future, so the requirements for molds are becoming higher and higher. In order to meet the needs of the market, the future plastic molds will have rapid development in terms of variety, structure, performance and processing, and this development must keep pace with the times. Looking to the future, the following development trends are expected to be applied and promoted quickly in the industry.

(1) Ultra-large, ultra-precise, long-life, and efficient molds will be developed.
(2) Molds with multiple materials, multiple colors, multiple layers and multiple cavities, and multiple molding methods will be developed.
(3) All kinds of rapid and economical molds, especially RP / RT technology combined with rapid prototyping technology will be developed rapidly.
(4) Mold design, processing and various management will develop in the direction of digitization and informatization. CAD / CAE / CAM / CAPP and PDM / PLM / ERP will develop in the direction of intelligence, integration and networking.
(5) Various mold processing equipment with higher speed, higher precision and more intelligence will be further developed and popularized.
(6) New materials for molds with higher performance and satisfying special purposes will continue to develop, and some special and more advanced processing methods will follow.
(7) Various mold cavity surface treatment technologies, such as coating, repairing, grinding and polishing, will continue to develop.
(8) Reverse engineering, concurrent engineering, compound processing and even virtual technology will be further developed.
(9) Hot runner technology will develop rapidly, and gas-assisted and other injection molding processes and molds will also develop.
(10) The degree of mold standardization will continue to increase.
(11) Today, with the growing importance of sustainable development and green products, the concept of "green mold" has gradually been put on the agenda. In other words, in the future, molds will increasingly consider resource conservation, reuse, environmental protection, and sustainable development in terms of structural design, raw material selection, manufacturing process, mold repair and scrap, and mold recycling. One trend.

During the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, under the guidance of the scientific concept of development, domestic mold companies will further deepen reform, make efforts to improve scientific and technological progress and innovation, adhere to the new industrialization road, and gradually transform the speed-effective growth model to quality and level With the benefit-oriented track, the mold industry will surely get a good and fast development.

Reprinted from: China Light Industry Mould Network