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<\/p>\nBased on more than 15 years of mold and injection production experience of Jingsheng, the cost reduction of injection molds is mainly implemented from five dimensions: design, material, processing, structure and management. The details are as follows:<\/p>\n
I.Front-end Product DFM Optimization (The Most Cost-effective Measure, 70% of Costs Stem from Product Design)<\/p>\n
1.Simplify Product Structure to Reduce Complex Mold Mechanisms<\/p>\n
\uff081\uff09 Eliminate undercuts, internal undercuts, deep rib positions and annular undercuts, and adopt draft angle design, split structure and appearance rib reduction instead. This avoids the application of sliding blocks, wedge blocks, core pulling, oil cylinders and secondary ejection mechanisms. The cost of a mold with multiple sliding blocks is 30%~80% higher than that of a mold without sliding blocks.<\/p>\n
\uff082\uff09 Unify wall thickness: Avoid excessive wall thickness difference and eliminate thick rubber positions to reduce sink marks and eliminate the need for hot runners and complex cooling systems. Uniform wall thickness also removes the requirement for layered ejection.<\/p>\n
\uff083\uff09Reduce screw posts and dense reinforcing ribs: Design thinner ribs with larger spacing to lower the working hours of electrode processing, polishing and mold finishing.<\/p>\n
\uff084\uff09 Combine small parts: Integrate multiple small parts into one component to reduce the number of molds. Adopt multi-cavity design for small parts to share mold costs.<\/p>\n
2.Cavity Layout Optimization<\/p>\n
\uff081\uff09Multi-cavity design: Prioritize 2\/4\/8-cavity molds for high-yield products to share the fixed costs of mold bases, hot runners and mechanical processing, which can directly halve the unit mold cost for high-volume products.<\/p>\n
\uff082\uff09Shared mold bases and blanks: Unify the mold base sizes for products of the same series with similar appearances, and only replace the cavity inserts instead of manufacturing brand-new complete mold bases.<\/p>\n
\uff083\uff09Minimize product outline: Reduce the length, width and height of products within the allowable assembly range to greatly cut down the steel consumption for cavities.<\/p>\n
3.Eliminate High-cost Process Requirements<\/p>\n
\uff081\uff09Replace mirror steel such as S136 and NAK80 with pre-hardened steel 718H and 738H for non-mirror appearance products, with a steel unit price difference of over 40%. Stainless mold steel is not required for non-corrosive plastics (PP\/PE\/ABS).<\/p>\n
\uff082\uff09Cancel hot runners for non-high-gloss products: Adopt pinpoint gates and side gates to simplify runner systems and eliminate hot nozzles, temperature controllers and heating coils. Hot runners are completely unnecessary for products with an annual output of less than 100,000 pieces.<\/p>\n
\uff083\uff09Cancel texture etching and fine graining: Adopt smooth mold surfaces to save etching processes; replace deep texture with shallow texture to reduce polishing and mold finishing working hours.<\/p>\n
\uff084\uff09Relax dimensional tolerances: Properly loosen the dimensional tolerances of non-matching appearance parts to avoid high-precision grinding and wire cutting processes.<\/p>\n
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II.Mold Steel Selection Optimization (Steel Accounts for 30%~50% of Total Mold Cost)<\/p>\n
1.Select Steel According to Output to Avoid Over-specification<\/p>\n
| \n Annual Output<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n Plastic Type<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n Cost-effective Steel Recommendation<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n High-priced Steel Not Recommended<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \n ≤ 100,000 pieces<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n Non-corrosive plastics (PP, ABS, PE)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 718H, 738H Pre-hardened Steel<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n S136, STAVAX<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \n 100,000~500,000 pieces<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n Common modified plastics<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n P20HH, 420 Pre-hardened Steel<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n M340, Polishing Special Steel<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| \n ≥ 500,000 pieces<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n Corrosive materials (PVC, PA+GF, flame-retardant plastics)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n S136H, 440C Steel<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n Ordinary pre-hardened steel (prone to rust and wear)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n 2.Steel Cost-saving Skills<\/p>\n \uff081\uff09Insert structure design: Adopt high-quality steel only for cavities and cores, and use ordinary carbon steel such as 45# and S50C for mold bases, wedge blocks, pressure plates and sliding block seats to achieve huge cost differences.<\/p>\n \uff082\uff09Domestic standardized mold bases: Adopt domestic standardized mold bases (Longji, Fudeba) instead of imported ones, reducing mold base costs by 25%~40%.<\/p>\n \uff083\uff09Material-saving design: Design cavities as embedded inserts, and replace integral large steel blocks with spliced small inserts to reduce waste of forged steel materials.<\/p>\n \uff084\uff09Reuse old steel materials: Recycle and reprocess intact cavity materials from old molds for low-output products with no strict appearance requirements.<\/p>\n III.Mold Structure Simplification (Reduce Accessories, Processing and Assembly Working Hours)<\/p>\n 1.Simplify Ejection System<\/p>\n \uff081\uff09Prioritize round ejector pins, and minimize flat ejector pins, sleeve pins and thimble tubes. The processing and fitting working hours of sleeve pins are 2~3 times that of ordinary ejector pins.<\/p>\n \uff082\uff09Adopt integral ejector plate ejection for large flat surfaces to eliminate push plate and secondary ejection mechanisms.<\/p>\n \uff083\uff09Avoid pneumatic and hydraulic ejection systems; pure mechanical ejection eliminates the need for oil cylinders, oil pipes and air valves.<\/p>\n 2.Low-cost Cooling Water Circuit Solution<\/p>\n \uff081\uff09Adopt straight drilled water circuits instead of special-shaped conformal water circuits for ordinary products, and replace deep hole drilling and 3D printed conformal cooling with simple drilling processes.<\/p>\n \uff082\uff09Avoid beryllium copper and red copper heat-conducting inserts for low-output products; increase water circuit diameter and shorten water circuit distance to meet cooling requirements.<\/p>\n 3.Simplify Parting and Undercut Structure<\/p>\n \uff081\uff09Adopt front mold draft angle and rear mold inclined lifter for external undercuts. Inclined lifters are far more cost-effective than sliding blocks, and sliding blocks are only used for large undercuts.<\/p>\n \uff082\uff09Lightweight sliding block design: Use ordinary steel for sliding block seats and only install wear-resistant plates instead of manufacturing integral sliding blocks with high-quality mold steel.<\/p>\n \uff083\uff09Cancel high-cost heat treatment such as quenching for wedge block wear plates; adopt nitriding treatment for low-wear products.<\/p>\n 4.Localize and Standardize All Standard Parts<\/p>\n Adopt universal domestic standard parts for springs, guide pins and guide bushes, ejector pins, sealing rings and limit blocks instead of imported MISUMI and HASCO parts. Unify standard part specifications to reduce procurement types and costs.<\/p>\n
IV.Processing Process Cost Reduction (Machining, CNC, EDM and Wire Cutting Account for 30% of Total Cost)<\/p>\n 1.Reduce electrode quantity: Optimize product structure to eliminate tiny rib positions and narrow deep grooves, so as to reduce copper\/graphite electrodes and EDM working hours. Machine large-area curved surfaces directly by CNC milling without EDM processing.<\/p>\n 2.Replace slow wire cutting with fast wire cutting: Adopt fast wire cutting for non-matching and non-appearance parts, whose unit price is only 1\/3 of slow wire cutting. Slow wire cutting is only used for high-precision inserts and matching surfaces.<\/p>\n 3.Reduce grinding processes: Relax product matching tolerances and complete finish machining by CNC to eliminate surface grinding and cylindrical grinding processes.<\/p>\n 4.Batch heat treatment: Centralize quenching and nitriding for multiple molds to share transportation and processing costs. Adopt only pre-hardening treatment for low-requirement molds without secondary quenching.<\/p>\n 4.Hierarchical polishing: Only perform grinding and finishing for matte and non-gloss parts without mirror polishing; implement local mirror polishing only for key inserts instead of integral mold polishing.<\/p>\n V.Standardization, Sharing and Reuse (Core Long-term Cost Reduction Method for Batch Development)<\/p>\n 1.Standardize general mold bases: Unify 3~5 sets of standard mold base sizes for the company, and prioritize existing standard mold blanks for new products to avoid re-material cutting and frame milling.<\/p>\n 2.Share standard mechanisms: Stock standard parts such as inclined lifter seats, sliding block pressure blocks, ejector plates and positioning rings to avoid independent processing for each set of molds.<\/p>\n 3.Interchangeable inserts for series products: For products of the same series with only different appearance textures and buckles, share the main mold base, ejection system and water circuit, and only replace cavity inserts to reduce costs by more than 50%.<\/p>\n 4.Reconstruct and reuse old molds: Disassemble and reuse intact mold bases, ejection systems and sliding block mechanisms from discontinued molds, and only remanufacture cavities and cores.<\/p>\n 5.Unify drawings for standard water circuits, lifting grooves and positioning grooves to reduce repeated programming and machining working hours.<\/p>\n
VI.Procurement and Production Management Cost Reduction<\/p>\n 1. Batch steel procurement: Purchase forged materials in batches to obtain lower unit prices and reduce residual material loss; sign long-term cooperation agreements with steel mills for preferential prices.<\/p>\n 2. Price comparison for external processing: Compare quotations from multiple suppliers for CNC, EDM, wire cutting and heat treatment, and establish long-term cooperative relationships to lower batch processing prices.<\/p>\n 3. Control mold life redundancy: Select materials according to estimated output, avoid over-specification for million-shot molds for low-output products, and cancel wear-resistant coatings (TD, PVD titanium plating) for low-demand molds.<\/p>\n 4. Integrate suppliers: Centralize procurement of mold bases, steel, standard parts and texture etching from 1~2 long-term suppliers to obtain tiered discounts.<\/p>\n 5. Reduce mold trial times: Complete sufficient DFM evaluation in advance to avoid additional modification costs caused by rib addition, sliding block adjustment and water circuit optimization. Mold modification costs often exceed 10%~30% of the initial mold price.<\/p>\n VII.Neglected Hidden Cost Reduction Points<\/p>\n 1.Cut mold modification costs: Complete thorough evaluation of drawings, 3D models and assembly structures, and confirm product dimensions, appearance and buckles before mold opening. Mold modification is the largest hidden cost in mold manufacturing.<\/p>\n 2.Lightweight mold design: Optimize the thickness of mold plates on the premise of meeting strength requirements to reduce steel weight and cost.<\/p>\n 3.Cancel redundant accessories: Eliminate inventory of spare inserts and electrodes, and produce spare parts only after stable mass production.<\/p>\n 4.Simplify runner system: Adopt side gates instead of pinpoint gates to simplify plate structure and reduce the use of push plates and screws.<\/p>\n
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