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This article is regarding investment casting mould and manufacture.

.What is mould design and manufacture?

A mold is a cavity tool with a certain shape and size, which is used in conjunction with various systems or auxiliary mechanisms within the mold to fill various high-temperature liquid materials (plastics or metal alloys, etc.) into the mold cavity to produce industrial parts with a specific shape, size, function and quality.

In products such as electronics, automobiles, motors, instruments, appliances, meters, home appliances and communications, 60%-80% of the parts rely on mold molding. The high precision, high complexity, high consistency, high productivity and low consumption of parts produced by molds are incomparable to other processing and manufacturing methods. Mold and is “benefit amplifier”, the value of the final product produced by the mold, is often dozens of times the value of the mold itself, hundreds of times. At present, the annual output value of the world’s mold about 60 billion U.S. dollars, Japan, the United States and other industrially developed countries, the output value of the mold industry has exceeded the output value of the machine tool industry.

mould design and manufacture

.How do you manufacture mold?

There is the process of manufacturing mould:

Drawing review → material preparation → processing → mold frame processing → mold core processing → electrode processing → mold parts processing → inspection → assembly → flying mold → test mold → production

.What material is mold manufacturing?

Type of Mould Working Conditions Performance Requirements For Mold Materials Commonly Used Materials
Cold Punching Die Punching Die It is mainly used for punching and forming various kinds of sheet materials, and its edge is subjected to strong abrasion and impact during the working process. It has high wear resistance, impact toughness and fatigue fracture resistance.
Cr12mov, Cr12, SKD11, T10A, W18Cr4V
Extrusion Die Mainly used for deformation molding, the punch is subjected to great pressure and the die is subjected to great tension when working; due to the violent flow of metal in the cavity, the working surface of the punch and die is subjected to strong friction, and the temperature of the die surface rises 200-300℃. It has high deformation resistance, wear resistance and fracture resistance, in addition to high tempering stability.
H13, 3Cr2W8V, 40Cr, 38CrMoAl, 5CrNiMo
Stretching die It is mainly used for deep-drawing forming of plate with certain plasticity, and the working stress is not large, but the entrance of concave die is subject to strong friction. High hardness and wear resistance, low roughness of working surface
Cr12MoV, Cr12, D2, 6-5-4-2, PeCu
Bending die Mainly used in the bending of metal materials with a certain plasticity, the role of the load on the mold is not very large, but there is a certain friction. High abrasion resistance and fracture capacity
Cr12MoV, D2, T10A, S45C
Plastic mold Thermoset Plastic Compression Molding Subject to large forces, higher working temperature (200 – 250 ℃), easy to erode, easy to wear, manual operation is also subject to the impact and collision of demoulding. It has high toughness, wear resistance and hot and cold fatigue resistance, and has certain corrosion resistance.
718, P20, Mak80, 40CrNiMo, 38CrMoAl, 45#
Thermoplastic Injection Molds Heat, pressure and friction are not too serious, and some plastic products contain chlorine and fluorine, which emit corrosive gases during pressing and erode the surface of the cavity. It has high corrosion resistance and a certain degree of wear resistance and toughness.
NAK80, 38CrMoAl, 40CrNiMo
Die Casting Mould The working temperature of the cavity is high and subject to repeated and violent temperature changes. High thermal strength and hot and cold fatigue resistance.
H13, 3Cr2W8V, 5CrNiMo
Dolly The working temperature of the mold is high (about 300℃), and the billet is rubbed against the surface of the cavity during the deformation process and subjected to strong impact load. It has high toughness, hot and cold fatigue resistance and high hardenability, with good tempering stability.
3Cr2W8V, H13, 5CrMnMo, 5CrNiMo
Powder Metallurgy Die The hardness of metal powder is generally very high, and the mold is subject to strong friction during the working process. In addition, the metal powder particle size is very small, easy to block the gap, increase the friction, causing difficulties in mold release. High hardness and wear resistance, low surface roughness.
D2, Cr12MoV, W18Cr4V

.What is mold in manufacturing technology?

High-speed milling technology has the advantages of fast machining speed and high surface quality and compared with traditional cutting technology, the cutting force is small and the cutting heat generated is greatly reduced. The temperature of the workpiece only increases by 3 degrees Celsius, which can control the thermal deformation well and is very suitable for materials sensitive to temperature and thermal deformation and parts with poor rigidity. High-speed milling is capable of machining hard materials as long as the cutting dosage is reasonably selected. At present, this technology is developing towards more prominent agility, intelligence, and integration, becoming the third generation of mold-making technology.

EDM is a new technology that can replace the traditional molding electrode to process cavities. It is called EDM because it uses a simple tubular electrode rotating at high speed to process 3D or 2D contours in a similar way to milling. The use of this technology does not require the manufacture of complex forming electrodes, which is a significant development for the field of EDM.

At the same pace as the development of EDM technology, the safety and protection technology of EDM is also getting more and more attention, especially the radiation problem of EDM machine tools is the focus of people’s attention. In order to meet this international trend, the “green” product technology of EDM machine tools has become the main research direction in the future.

The new generation mold CAD/CAM software is based on a large number of mold design and processing experiences, after systematic and scientific organization, with intelligent, integrated, mold manufacturability evaluation and other characteristics. The software stores the engineering knowledge base in a specific form and can be easily called up in mold manufacturing to generate the 3D structure information of the mold. The software with high integration can form a global dynamic database in a unified way to realize comprehensive information management and sharing to support various aspects of mold design, manufacturing, assembly, inspection, testing, and production.

Mold rapid manufacturing technology mainly includes laser rapid prototyping technology, moldless multi-point forming technology, and resin mold stamping, etc. Laser rapid prototyping technology includes stereolithography, layered split manufacturing, selective laser sintering, and 3D printing, etc.

The development of precision molds requires higher and higher measurement technology. Traditional measurement methods are subject to strict environmental restrictions, and can rarely be used in the production site. The new generation of three-coordinate measuring machine is made of vibration-resistant materials and has functions such as dustproof and temperature compensation, which improves the adaptability of the environment and the reliability of use, and can be easily measured on-site in the workshop.

Mold surface mirror polishing technology is an important surface treatment process, it is the use of abrasive tools, the mold surface roughness polishing to below micron process. The quality of polishing is influenced by various factors such as the polishing process, polishing equipment, and material properties. With the increasing demand for mirror surface injection mold, mold polishing technology becomes a key link in mold production.

Mold

.What are mold and its types?

Molds are divided into three categories according to the different materials they are made hardware molds, plastic molds, and special molds.

Hardware molds are divided into stamping molds (such as punching molds, bending molds, deep drawing molds, flanging molds, shrinking molds, heaving molds, expanding molds, shaping molds, etc.), forging molds (such as die forging molds, upsetting molds, etc.), extrusion molds, extrusion molds, die casting molds, forging molds, etc.

According to the different materials of the mold itself, the mold can be divided into a sand mold, metal mold, vacuum mold, paraffin mold, and so on. Among them, with the rapid development of polymer plastics, plastic molds are closely related to people’s life. Plastic molds can be generally divided into injection molding molds, extrusion molding molds, gas-assisted molding molds, and so on.

mold-3

VI.moulding process in the foundry

The process of traditional sand casting has the following steps: sand preparation, mold making, core making, molding, pouring, sand falling, grinding and processing, inspection, and other steps.

  1. sand mixing stage, preparation of sand and core sand for modeling, generally use the sand mixer into the old figure and the appropriate amount of clay on the mixing.
  2. mold-making stage, according to the parts drawing to make the mold and core box, generally single piece can use the wooden mold, mass production can be made of plastic mold or metal mold (commonly known as iron mold or steel mold), a large number of castings can be made type plate. Now the mold is basically a carving machine so the production cycle is greatly shortened, the mold generally takes 2 to 10 days ranging.
  3. modeling (core making) stage: including the modeling (with sand to form the cavity of the casting), core making (forming the internal shape of the casting), with the mold (the core into the cavity, the upper and lower sandbox together). Modeling is the key link in casting.
  4. melting stage: according to the required metal composition with a good chemical composition, choose a suitable melting furnace to melt the alloy material, forming a qualified liquid metal liquid (including composition qualified, temperature qualified). Melting generally uses a cupola or electric furnace (due to environmental requirements, the cupola is now basically outlawed, the basic use of electric furnace).
  5. pouring stage: the molten iron from the electric furnace is injected into the good type with the iron package. Pouring iron needs to pay attention to the speed of pouring so that the iron is filled with the entire cavity. In addition, pouring iron is dangerous, you need to pay attention to safety!
  6. clean-up stage: after pouring and so on molten metal solidification, take the hammer to remove the sprue and shake off the casting sand, and then use the sand blasting machine for sandblasting, so that the casting surface will look clean! The requirements are not strict casting blanks after inspection can basically leave the factory.
  7. casting processing, for some special requirements of the castings or some casting that can not meet the requirements of the casting, may need simple processing. Generally use a grinding wheel or grinder for processing and grinding, and deburring, so that the castings are more polished.
  8. casting inspection, casting inspection is generally in the process of cleaning or processing stage, unqualified generally have been found to pick out. But there are some castings that have individual requirements and need to be checked again. For example, some castings need the center hole can be inserted into the 5 cm shaft, then you need to take the 5 cm shaft to wear a try.

mold-2

VII.What are the types of molding in casting?

Casting mold is a common process in industrial manufacturing, to obtain the structural shape of the part, pre-made with other easy to shape the material into the structural shape of the part, and then put the mold in the sand, so the sand is formed in a cavity and the same size as the structure of the part, and then in the cavity to pour liquidity, the liquid-cooled and solidified to form and mold shape and structure of the exact same parts The liquid cools and solidifies to form a part with the exact same shape and structure as the mold.

plastic-injection-metal-mold-production-from-manufacture-by-high-precision-and-quality-cnc

So what are the types of casting molds?

  1. forging forming die: forging and casting, are the same as the production of zero, parts Z commonly used processing technology, forging die mainly: die forging and large press with forging die, screw press with forging die, flat forging machine forging die, roll forging die, etc., at the same time, fasteners cold heading die, extrusion die, drawing die, liquid forging with die, etc. are also the same belong to forging die.
  2. casting with metal mold: this type of mold and die-casting die has some similarities, but it is more focused on casting, various metal parts used in casting metal model.
  3. Powder metallurgy mold forming die: powder metallurgy mold forming die is more complex, mainly: manual die, motorized die, set of class one-way, two-way pressure die, set of class floating pressure die, plastic mold. And these types, there is subordinate classifications, which, for example, manual die also includes: radial shaping die, with external step set class full shaping die, with spherical parts shaping die, etc..
  4. stamping die: also known as punching die, stamping die in the cold stamping process, the material will be processed to get the parts of the process equipment. This type of die mainly includes punching die, bending die, stretching die, single process die, compound punching die, progressive punching die and automobile covering parts punching die, combination punching die, motor silicon steel sheet punching die.
  5. Ceramic mold: various ceramic ware and other products with forming metal mold.
  6. powder metallurgy mold forming die: powder metallurgy mold forming die is more complex, mainly: manual die, motorized die, set of class one-way, two-way pressure die, set of class floating pressure die, plastic mold. And these types, there is subordinate classification, which, for example, manual die also includes: radial shaping die, with external step set class full shaping to die, with spherical parts shaping die, etc.
  7. die-casting die: casting is one of the more common types of parts in the production and processing, die-casting die is mainly a hot chamber die-casting machine with die-casting die, horizontal cold chamber die-casting machine with, vertical cold chamber die-casting machine with die-casting die, all vertical die-casting machine with die-casting die, non-ferrous metal die-casting, ferrous metal die-casting die.
  8. glass products mold: glass products with the mold, mainly according to the processing form of classification, the former is forming bottles and jars mold, the latter is forming bottles and jars mold, glassware with mold, etc.

That’s all. If you want to learn more information, don’t hesitate to contact us.

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