Our mold making shop is fully equipped to manufacture custom injection molds in-house, 50% of our injection molds are exported to European and north America in HASCO or DME standard, Averagely we can supply 25+ sets of molds monthly, lead time is around 20-50 days depends on the mold size, complexity of mold structure, we use mould bases, steel, hot nozzles, accesories only from good reputation suppliers such as LKM,ASSAB,DAIDO etc for all export molds.
Our mould making capacities and experiences include:
Mold steel we frequently used:
1.2344, 12343, ASSBAS136, LKM H13, LKM2316, LKM738H, 1.2083, 1.2312, NAK80, MOLDMAX-HH.
To lower down the cost and increase the efficiency, we pay special attention and strive to optimize our injection mold making process and manufacture correctness, the less rework and mold trail out, the more cost and lead-time we can save, we did it and are working on for better, in the past years, we target 20% of the molds approved at T1, 80% at T2 ,we had 98% positive feedback for the plastic injection molds we manufactured.
we also provide custom plastic injection molding services, so about 50% of the injection molds we made will stay in house for contract molding,With our combined experiences and acknowledges of injeciton molds and injection molding, we are capable of offering you the most proper and ecnomic molding solution, there are some abvious advantages for you to have a China mold maker like us who can offer one stop service for both mold making and injection molding and other services:
We also manufacture precision machined parts of injection mold, die-casting mold, 0.01-0.02mm proposed to leave for final fitting in customer’s own mold factory, we are able to do this in a short notice to meet your company’s time table for the whole mold project, normally the delivery time we offered is 10-18 days or even less depends on the ordered quantities. Harden treatment steel would need a little longer time. Full measurement report is available, delivery by DHL, UPS, TNT or air shipping.
All of the plastic injection molds manufactured and stay at Aco Mold for injection molding is well organized to put on storage after molding production is finished,Core and cavity would be covered by anti-rust spray, mold plate is clean without any mess, it would be labeled and identified to easy to accesses for next time production, we ensure it’s immdiately available whenver you are in need of more plastic parts , Any changes of the parts and molds will be recorded and traceable.
All of the injection molds for export are delivered with 2D/3D design drawings, NC programming data, injection parameter, measurement report etc , we also provide EDM copper, interchangeable inserts, wearing parts for easy worn-out area, this will ensure you to do maintenance or replacement at your facility very easy.
For those companies who had their injection mold making project proceed in China which is far away from their countries, deep understanding of the actual process of mold manufacturing is an advantage to get the project under tight control, sitting in the office and simply waiting for a final result from the mold making company is always not so wise unless you have already build a truthworthy relationship, It would be too late to do anything if don’t manage your project step by step.
A typical custom injection mold project process includes DFM, mold design, mold base, steel, accessories preparation, rough CNC machine, heat treatment, precision CNC machine, EDM, wire cut, mold fitting and mold trial/sampling.
1)DFM and mold design
Injection mold design start with DFM procedure( design for manufactuability), basic mold design information will be present, such as mold size, cavities layout, runner system, gating method, parting line, ejection method, mechanical design, accessories used, steel of each component used, cooling design etc. 3D design in details and NC programming will follow after the DFM is approved by the customer. Depends on the complexity and size, a complete mold design would need 3-5 days, Some of the complex projects require mold flow analysis or frequent updates of part design from the end customers, it could take much longer time, it involves a lots of back and forth to go through all details, it is a time comsuming process but worthy it.
2)Planning, Mold base, steel and accessories preparation
Once the mold design is approved, our project manager will make a detailed schedule for the project from start to T1 sampling, your project manager in Aco mold will keep you updated in a weekly basis,, Mold base and steel can be ordered immediately after design get approved and finalized, accessories especially hot runner system could take much longer time to get back, all of this procedure need to be track closely if you don’t want to cause any delay on next step.
3) 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 at later stage
4) Heat treatment
After rough machining, internal stress will be created during machining, heat treatment process is to achieve certain hardness and internal balance, such as 1.2343, 1.2344, it usually need to be harden to HRC48-52 , some of the steel,also called pre-harden steel don’t need this process,such as P20, 738H NAK80 etc.
5) CNC precision machining
The steel hardness is much higher than it is on last step machining, to get dessired measurement, the CNC process of precision machining is much slower than rough machining with much less cutting amount, a fine machinied mold insert has a smooth, glossy finish and accurate dimension as designed, maximum tolerance we can achieve is 0.01-0.005mm.
6) Wire cut and EDM
Wire cut is a process specially for all kinds of through holes (ejector pin holes, lifters, inserts), EDM is particularly for some of the features that can’t not be machined by CNC machining, either too deep to allow the cutter work properly, or it’s simply too narrow to get in there, considering EDM and W-EDM is a time cousuming and expensive process, it is intended to avoid too much of these procedure as much as possible by mold design optimization, experienced designer would design the main insert into several sub-inserts so these inserts can be machined by CNC directly and independently instead of too much of wire cut or EDM process.
7) Finish and fitting
After all the components are finished and prepared, mold maker collects them all and assemble them by following the design drawing, it’s a job that rely heavily on experiences and skills, some of the part might need to be polished or even rework to fit, at most cases, the core or cavity have specially requirement for surface finish, such as texture, polish, engraving etc
8) Mold trial
Congratulation if it’s still on schedule as planning, it’s the time to get the mold on an injection molding machine to do the trial. Make sure you made your requirement clear how many plastic parts you need for samples, instruct the mold making company to use the right resin, injection parameter and measurement report should be provided along with molded plastic parts.
