Chinese mold enters the international market to participate in the global market competition

Despite the arrival of the post-crisis era, the market outlook for China's industry is still very good. The hardware mold industry faces great challenges. With the reform and opening up, the focus of global manufacturing transfer to China has provided a powerful impetus for the development of China's mold industry, and it has also raised increasingly high demands for domestic mold manufacturers. Luo Baihui, CEO of Die Network pointed out that the current Chinese mold manufacturing companies must focus on improving product quality and lower manufacturing costs, and realize the strategic shift from a “mold power” to a “mold powerhouse”.

“Although China's die size is second only to Japan and the United States, it is mostly concentrated in middle and low-grade areas, and its technical level and added value are relatively low. On the contrary, many middle-to-high-end molds also rely on imports. The future fight is the core competitiveness of products, both at home and abroad. In the same way that China's mold industry needs to continue its development, it is feared that both our companies and the government will need to make efforts in technological R&D innovation,” said Zhang Chengjun, general manager of Blu-ray Mold and Blu-ray Precision (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. of Chang’an, Dongguan.

“Chang'an is the capital of China's mold industry. According to what I know, the financial crisis has affected the current days. The companies in other places have not been as good as they are,” said Liu Wei, an analyst at Jinyuan Securities Machinery Industry.

The explanation given by Zhang Chengjun to the writer is that the main reason for this situation is the lack of core competitiveness of the company and the lack of product quality, which is greatly affected by the financial crisis. The mold industry is different from other industries. It was not affected at the end of last year. However, it was evident that the impact of this year was 1-4 months. The market started to pick up again in May. Our company still has confidence in the future.

Confidence does not only come from the important position of the mold industry itself in manufacturing, but also from the rigid demand of the huge market.

The rapid development of the automotive industry has brought opportunities for the development of China's mold industry. China's auto parts molds, instrument panel molds, bumper molds, and automotive electronics molds are used more and more widely in auto parts production. At the same time, with the rapid development of the automotive industry, automotive molds and welding fixtures have gradually been effectively combined and matched, and the integration trend of car body mold clamps has been enhanced, which can reduce the matching period and reduce user costs.

Ten years ago, China's automobile molds were mainly marked by the mold teams of FAW, Second Automobile, Tianqi, Nanjing Auto, Chengfei and Taiwan of China. Today, the automotive mold enterprises have grown to dozens, and a number of rapid rises have occurred. Private enterprises already have a considerable scale. Both in terms of technology and productivity, these companies have greatly exceeded the iconic companies of the year.

From the distribution of automobile stamping dies throughout the country, it can be seen that China's automobile mold has evolved from the spark of the past to today's all over the country. In the past three years, more than half of the molds and fixtures needed for dozens of self-owned brands and joint-venture brands listed on the Chinese market have been developed and manufactured by Chinese die-casting companies, many of which are already OEM manufacturers (original equipment manufacturers). The most complex vehicle molds for the Class B cars were handed over to China's mold enterprises for production.

At present, there are more than 100 domestic auto body mold manufacturers with a certain scale, of which 20 are output value of more than 100 million yuan. The number of large CNC machine tools exceeds 800 units, which are close to or surpassing Germany, the United States, and Japan.

Before 2002, the domestic mold enterprises mainly produced truck and van molds, and the car molds were only at the level of molds for production structural parts; the production capacity of welders was also limited to the production of sub-assembly jigs and part assembly jigs for internal parts. From 2003 to 2007, the domestic mold enterprises gradually began to produce white car body molds, and the welding equipment companies also had the production capacity from the chassis assembly four doors and side panels to the main body wire of the white body. Close to the international advanced level.

Many domestic enterprises have realized the three-dimensional physical processing of dies, and the main task of the molders is to compile processing procedures in the computer room. This greatly improves the quality of the mold, increases the efficiency, and shortens the manufacturing cycle. In recent years, with the continuous introduction of high-speed multi-function CNC machine tools, high-strength cutting tools and other advanced processing methods, rapid development has been achieved in the areas of unmanned high-speed machining, fine processing of mold surfaces, 5-axis simultaneous machining, and computer virtual machining. . Advanced technologies such as analog simulation and virtual reality have begun to be applied in the early stages of mold clamp development.

Due to the rapid development of the industry, the promotion of the technology and management of the Chinese mold industry has also entered the fast lane, and has the ability to challenge the mold manufacturing industry in developed countries. The value of import and export molds in China was 5.8:1 five years ago, while the import/export ratio in 2007 was 1.45:1, and the export volume of molds exceeded US$1.4 billion. It marks the era that China's mold industry has entered the international market with scale. arrival.

Japan's Toyota, the German Volkswagen and other leading international automotive manufacturers, have a special stamping, welding, assembly, painting process personnel. Together with the body designers of the R&D center, they conducted a process analysis of the products.

From the car body design to the tooling manufacturing, all follow the principle of unity. The degree of integration is very high, which is very beneficial to the overall control of the body quality, cost, and cycle. Most of China's mold and welding folder industries are fighting each other. It is difficult to communicate between mold manufacturers and welding folder manufacturers. Many problems are stuck in the production preparation stage of auto manufacturers, which seriously restricts the product quality and output of white bodies. cycle.

Due to the limitation of the special structure of mold materials and molds, the current level of stamping technology for auto body molds in China is still at a certain distance from the foreign counterparts. This is mainly reflected in the experience and experience of process designers. There are too many differences between the types of models that domestic process designers are exposed to and those of foreign process designers, which leads to some constraints on process design ideas.

The foreign stamping process spiral sand washing machine design is a highly specialized job with clear division of labor. It needs to complete the complex design process sand washing machine through teamwork. It generally includes the preliminary product process analysis, process plan forecast, model construction, Feasibility analysis of the process, repeated optimization of the model and other design processes.

Taking the overall side of the car as an example, the ordinary side molding die is generally 5 to 6 processes. Four years ago, Toyota changed its sidewalk from five processes to four processes, and intensified efforts in mold development and product development to achieve a major leap in the industry. The current research direction is to complete the overall side wall stamping process by using three processes. The manufacturer of jaw crusher is not only required to improve the stamping process, but also requires the collaborative research and development of synchronous engineering. When designing the car's overall side encircling the product, It is necessary to fully consider the feasibility of the stamping process.

Some advanced companies in the world have a high level of ability to develop welding equipment, and have formed a small number of small and medium-sized enterprises with a high degree of professionalism as the core of the company. pattern. Foreign countries such as Japan's Toyota, Volkswagen, France Peugeot, and U.S. General Motors have applied three-dimensional digital process planning and simulation software for nearly a decade. In China, there is a lack of unified digital information management methods for large-scale, high-automation welding line process planning, and no planning capability for such high-level automated welding lines has yet been formed.

The equipment of China's white-car body manufacturing industry is now close to the world's leading level both in terms of quantity and advancement. According to the manufacturer of incomplete crusher, the number of domestic large CNC machine tools has exceeded 800 units, but due to the late start and insufficient accumulation, the manufacturing technology water cone crusher Pinghe International The advanced level still has a big gap. To make our country a big mold country and a powerful mold country, the industry needs to make gritty efforts.

China's auto mold industry is lagging behind, with unstable material types and material properties. These problems include: the variety and quality of standard parts are not high; the gap in the manufacturing process level leads to higher processing costs than foreign manufacturers; edge hardening techniques such as induction hardening/laser quenching/nitridation/titanium are to be developed; data feedback and stamping processes after commissioning Insufficient accumulation of experience, lack of effective measures to integrate the fitter's debugging and dressing process into the early stage of design; lack of systematic management procedures and ability to gradually upgrade.

The two oil crises have promoted the first lightening of automobiles; the protection of the global environment has promoted the second lightening of automobiles. The requirement to achieve lighter weight and meet automotive safety regulations promotes the application of high-strength steels. Japan and European automotive manufacturers use high-strength steel plates for a long time and have a wide range of applications. According to the material, a Japanese automobile company used 15% of high-strength steel in 1980, exceeded 30% in 1990, and reached 50% in 2000. The application of high-strength steel plates for domestic auto parts is limited to structural parts and beam parts. The tensile strength of materials is usually less than 500 MPa. The newly developed model stamping parts have a maximum of 980 MPa. How to rapidly accumulate and manufacture high-strength steel plate stamping parts is a problem that we need to solve urgently. problem.

In the United States, the mold industry is considered to be "the cornerstone of American industry"; in Japan, the mold industry is highly promoted to such a high position as "the driving force behind entering an affluent society." In China, the State Council adopted the "Adjustment and Revitalization Plan for the Equipment Manufacturing Industry", which also regards the upgrading of the technical level of molds and their manufacturing equipment as their key content, in the national 16 major science and technology specialties basic equipment functional components (key components) project The special project of the mold project also reflects the important position of the mold industry in the manufacturing industry.

In addition, the central government’s series of stimulus plans to boost domestic demand also bring opportunities to the mold market. Some people pointed out that how to make achievements in automobiles, aviation, medical equipment, and new energy sources, seize the business opportunities of the 4 trillion yuan total investment in construction projects, and transform the national strategy and new industries into real orders for the mold industry. It is also necessary to segment the market, lock in target customers, diversify operations, take mold manufacturing as the core, extend the product chain, and actively provide equipment and products for the downstream industries of the mold to meet the ever-increasing market differentiation.

Although the outlook is good, the mold market itself is also a global competitive market. At present, mold manufacturers in developed countries have also settled in China. This will undoubtedly aggravate the competitive situation in the Chinese mold market. Compared with foreign countries in the past, China’s biggest advantage is the low labor force. Professor Hashimoto Hiroki of the Japan Policy Research Institute believes that in general, Chinese molds are “1/3 cost, 1/2 quality” compared to Japanese molds. However, with the promulgation and implementation of the "New Labor Law," labor costs have increased, and the advantages of Chinese companies have been lost. Luo Baihui emphasized that “the mold industry should pay attention to structural adjustment, vigorously develop high-value-added products, take a refined, specialized, and strong line, and create new growth points in the 'Blue Ocean.'” Companies in Japan and the United States have spared no effort to enhance high-end molds. The competitive advantage in the field, and China must also improve product quality, rely on technology upgrades to reduce production costs, which has reached consensus in the industry.

According to reports, Changan town also pays great attention to this point, and it is believed that there will be great progress through hard work. “But now there is also a problem. Scientific and technological innovation has a large investment in human and material resources. This is still very difficult for private enterprises. Private enterprises in the Chinese mold market occupy a large part and I hope the government can see this. , To provide us with a platform, technically requires funding from the government.” Zhang Chengjun said. In the face of crisis, it needs the cooperation of the government and the enterprise to jointly cope with the industry problems facing the metal mold industry.