Today, I share with my peers how to reduce the comprehensive cost of the mold by preliminary evaluation ESI, mold design and mold engineering management. I always believe that the three key factors affecting the cost of the mold are: preliminary product feasibility evaluation ESI, mold design and mold engineering management. Why are these three key factors? It's not that the others aren't important. Because these three are the key to mold technology, is the most critical factor to measure the technical ability of a mold factory. Mould materials, tools, machine rates, depreciation and other costs of each enterprise are almost the same, the price is almost transparent, cost compression space is limited. The key is to reduce the cost of manufacture and use of your die through technology and optimal management. Only consider the cost of the mold itself, the concept is problematic, only injection can reflect the value of the mold, can be high efficiency, high quality, low loss, mold fault less, smooth completion of injection molding product production is the real value of the mold, the real value and comprehensive benefit of the mold is reflected in the injection section.

Today, I would like to combine 20 years of experience in mold technology management with colleagues to discuss what is the root cause of mold cost.

When many die peers mention the cost of die, often the first thing they think of is the cost of die design, die materials, processing, die accessories, die trial and management. In fact, the root cause of these costs is often ignored or not enough attention, to solve the problem from the root, to be forward-looking, as long as the root of the problem is found, to solve the cost of the mold is only the technical details. The three fundamental factors that affect the cost of molds are: ESI, mold design, and mold engineering management, which are also the root cause of mold problems.

Here are some lessons I have learned from these three reasons.

First, how to reduce the cost of mold in ESI for pre-product risk assessment

Preliminary risk assessment (ESI) is the key to mold design
To reduce the cost of the most fundamental is to do a good mold design of the preliminary assessment, namely ESI assessment.
Is it different from what many bosses think?
Yes you read that right, it is ESI for the preliminary evaluation of mold design.
I firmly believe that the cost of the mold is designed

Preliminary evaluation (ESI) is very important to avoid repeated modifications of the product and mold, avoid most process risks, reduce the number of die trials, and save a lot of resources for subsequent work.

Ii. Basic idea of Product Evaluation (ESI) :

Prevention is better than remediation, do a good job of early communication with customers, before the product design is finalized, customers are more likely to accept the improvement advice of the mold factory, and it is difficult for designers to accept the modification of the product after the design is finalized.

1, the technical team to estimate the early stage of the product (ESI), 50% in the product design stage in a product evaluation, the main mold about scheme and molding risk assessment, and output the appraisal report suggested discussing modify product design, product design stage 80% early assessment engineer detailed assessment and output detailed assessment report, the report includes: Detailed mold development plan, mold manufacturing risk assessment, molding risk assessment and product post-treatment, risk assessment, output detailed report, close loop management of all risk problems until all problems are solved

2. In the 80% evaluation stage of the product, because the large structure has been determined, the mold department can simultaneously carry out mold design and procurement of mold long-cycle parts. After 100% of the product design is completed, the mold design only needs a small amount of local modification to start processing, so as to realize the synchronization of product design and mold manufacturing, and save mold development time;

3, the early stage of the product evaluation (ESI), a senior expert team to include various mold section: mold design, material analysis, mold flow analysis and structure analysis), mold processing, molding machine, the post-processing technology, etc., ESI team responsible for the entire product mold technology and die design review, eventually mold department according to the plan implementation, responsible for the details of mould design and manufacturing; An ESI team does not require many people. The key is excellence. Small and medium-sized mould enterprises lack of experienced technical personnel, can consider outsourcing to professional technical service companies, mold flow analysis, preliminary evaluation, final audit of mould scheme can be assigned to professional companies.

4. ESI team to provide major technical solutions for product molding problems;

5. ESI team provides mold modification solutions for major product design changes and evaluates various process risks. Problems are also managed in a closed loop. After the detailed evaluation of customer products in the early stage, can avoid customer products in the mold trial after repeated modification of the mold, in the evaluation stage has avoided more than 80% of the molding risk, reduce the number of mold trial. Through communication with customers, products can be modified, mold processing technology can be optimized, and processing risks can be reduced.

In the early communication stage, customers are often easy to accept product modification, which facilitates mold processing and injection molding, and is the most effective way to avoid subsequent risks. Optimize the processing technology, processing natural reduces the cost and risk, reduce the product changes, it costs less, test times is greatly reduced, the cost of the test but not small, shorten the period of delivery, quality problem, customer satisfaction is high, and avoid the risk of after most of the process, the mould cost is reduced

Three, how to reduce the cost of mold design

Above, we have shared how to reduce the cost of molds and avoid risks through the pre-intervention evaluation of products. Here we share another key factor affecting the cost of the mold - mold design. I have always believed that the mold cost is designed. I will share the ideas first, and the specific methods will be introduced later. When many bosses and managers of small and medium-sized mould enterprises mention the cost of mould, the first thing they think of is the following method:
Mold materials from imported steel to cheap domestic steel?
Material as thin as possible to do small savings materials?
Reduce processing?
Less thimbles, less inserts?
Less design and processing of waterways?
Do not use hot runner as much as possible?
Connect cooling waterways to reduce water pipe connections?

Basically from the material and processing costs to save costs, in fact, the concept is wrong, you know? You're only looking at the surface of the cost, and these are ways to increase costs, not reduce them.

1, the mold design should give the material strength enough insurance factor, because the material problem caused by the modification of the mold and the cost of the test is far greater than the material cost?

2, the mold ejector design should be enough, rather excess, not because of saving the thimble caused by the product ejector, ejector imbalance, product ejector deformation and other problems, a modified mold test caused by the loss is far greater than a few thimble.

3, don't cry because it is to reduce processing costs less inserts, in difficult machining area, local flow end product as far as possible to make insert, and do enough exhaust slot on inserts, do more insert seems to increase the cost, but will reduce the risk of a lot of molding, mould kernel was small and insert can be synchronous processing of qualifying, shorten the mould processing cycle; Inserts are beneficial to exhaust, shorten filling time, reduce molding pressure, and reduce all kinds of product defects caused by trapped gas.

4. Mold cooling waterways should be as many as possible, and balance and rationality should be considered, especially for large and thick products. Multiple design and processing waterways seem to increase the cost, if the product molding cycle can be reduced by 3-5 seconds, is it better to reflect the value of the mold?

5, the cooling water design in order to reduce the joint, many waterways are connected in series is also a very wrong idea. Some field injection personnel in order to facilitate the direct series of multiple waterways. If the cooling water flows in the mold for too long, the water temperature will increase, and there will be a significant difference between the inlet and outlet temperatures, which will affect the cooling effect of the product, and even cause the product to be deformed due to uneven cooling.

6. Mold design should take the initiative to communicate with customers, judge the parts of customer products that are easy to modify and the parts that are easy to be damaged in mold production, and make a plan in advance to facilitate the subsequent modification of the mold. If it can be quickly replaced inserts, spare parts in advance, etc., it is necessary to make plans in advance, otherwise it will cause high mold repair cost.

7, mold design to design exhaust as much as possible, and reasonable design exhaust, processing; Many small and medium-sized mold enterprises do not design the exhaust groove mold design, by the site fitter according to their own experience, this is very wrong; Design and processing exhaust seems to be a waste of cost, exhaust problem is a very important factor causing product problems, we should pay attention to. The benefits of exhaust are not elaborated here.

8, mold design parts must have tolerance standards, processing and testing must be carried out in accordance with tolerance requirements, some factories do not have detailed tolerance standards, processing unqualified often signed by supervisors, these are the hidden dangers of mold problems, will also make the cost of modifying mold increase.

In short, the mold design must fully consider the subsequent modification of the mold and the cost of injection production. Mold is for injection molding services, to consider the overall cost. Some enterprises only do molds, sell molds to customers for injection molding, in order to control the cost of molds and ignore injection production, in the long run, these mold factories will be abandoned by customers, even if your mold price is low, no quality is scrap iron. Only when injection molding production is fully considered is a good mold. Mold peer please remember, mold cost is designed.

Four, how to reduce the cost of mold engineering management

I talk about the mold engineering is actually the mold project management, how to use the mold engineering management to reduce the mold cost. The above is about the preliminary evaluation ESI, how to reduce the comprehensive cost of the mold design, I always believe that the three key factors affecting the mold cost are: The requirements and roles of mold engineering managers in different enterprises are also different, such as large mold enterprises with standardized management, because the process system is relatively perfect, the division of labor in each section is fine, the performance assessment is fine, and the technical strength is strong. Then the role of mold engineering is to organize meetings, control nodes and follow up the delivery date. Engineers who have worked for 3 years and have a basic understanding of mold will be qualified. Small and medium-sized mould injection enterprises have much higher requirements for mould engineering management personnel, because they assume more technical roles, and coordinate the work of on-site bickering, both to understand technology and project management, in order not to be fooled by each section. Small and medium-sized mould enterprises often lack such talents, can not afford to hire such talents, even do not pay attention to the training of such talents, training also can not stay. This is also the pain of small and medium-sized mould enterprises. The following is about the engineering management of small and medium-sized mould enterprises.

Basic abilities for mold engineering management:

1. Be familiar with the mold structure and the processing technology of each section, most of which come from experienced fitters, preferably those who have design background and experience in fitters, and have technical secondary school degree or above;

2. Strong planning, coordination and communication skills, with emphasis on project management; 

3. Ability to organize and summarize meetings;

4. Be proactive, able to withstand pressure, and independent;

5. It is best for small and medium-sized mould enterprises to have talents with certain technical ability and prestige. There are a lot of disputes in each section of the mould factory, and they should be able to coordinate and not be good people.

Main work contents of mold engineering management personnel:

1. Early planning of mold progress, process tracking, result tracking, responsible for the whole result of mold; Mold engineering is a project of a mold factory. A project will be led by mold engineering to organize a PDT team. Mold engineering is the leader of the project and is responsible for the results of the whole project.

2. Mold engineering should be involved in the mold design stage after the completion of the preliminary evaluation of the product. After the completion of the preliminary evaluation report, each section should be organized for a meeting to review, and the project members of each section should be organized for a meeting to review after the completion of mold design. Small and medium-sized mould enterprises do not have to go to the conference room for meetings. They can organize several people to complete the review in a short time by the computer. Mould engineering should be well recorded to ensure that all problems are closed and risks are avoided. Small and medium-sized mold owners may think that meeting is a waste of time, in fact, this is the most effective way to avoid subsequent risks, in the strong technical experts will have the light dark, you can not see the problem, after a brief and detailed review can effectively avoid risks and future problems.

3. An important work of mold engineering management is process tracking, resource coordination and emergency handling. It is also the work that most tests the ability of graduate mold engineering personnel. In small and medium-sized mold factories, due to the imperfect process system, the situation is often constant in the processing process, which requires timely and effective judgment and treatment of mold engineering management personnel, so as not to cause abnormal unsupervised, parts processing delay and other problems; After the mold trial, organize the project related personnel to review the results of the mold trial, formulate the mold repair plan, summarize the project, and make good records.

4. Since the mold engineering is responsible for the final result of the mold and is the leader of the whole project, the boss of the mold factory should give them the corresponding rights, such as: the right of resource allocation, the right of project examination, etc., the anomaly of each section should have data, the delivery date should have data, and try to use the data assessment to avoid disputes. The project manager can score project members and even determine their performance. This is necessary, there is a responsibility to give corresponding rights, otherwise there is no responsibility.

5. The meeting review organized by the mold engineering, in fact, decides the entire processing process of the mold, rationally coordinates the allocation of resources, and avoids the subsequent risks. The mold processing efficiency is high, the process risk is effectively avoided, and the cost of the mold can naturally be reduced.

6. In die and mould enterprises, the ability of die and mould engineering personnel is very important. They are the summarizers of the company's technology and can effectively carry out technical precipitation. Mold engineering personnel training is very important to consciously cultivate, and want to live to stay, it is better to special training, such as: a project management personnel to handle one type of mould, full-time staff, conducive to do technical management and technology precipitation, long-term effect is very obvious, the owner must pay attention to the needs of medium/small mould enterprises. Die and mould engineering management is a university. There are many management theories and methods. Do not use the fuzzy and rough die and mould engineering management mode any more. How to play the role of mold engineering management is also a big topic, good management will be a very effective way to reduce the cost of mold, technology is reasonable, smooth processing, delivery time is shortened, project risk is less, the comprehensive cost of mold injection is naturally reduced. Therefore, the mold engineering management ability is worth the mold manufacturing enterprises pay great attention to.

Conclusion:

Preliminary product evaluation ESI, mold design, engineering management ability is the key to measure the ability of a mold factory, the key to improve these three capabilities is the talent team. The quality of the mold is only reflected by the section after. Only injection molding can reflect the value of the mold, can high efficiency, high quality, low loss, less mold failure, smooth completion of injection molding product production is the real value of the mold, the real value and comprehensive benefit of the mold is reflected in the injection section. Mold in the low price, not fully consider the comprehensive benefit of the mold enterprise will eventually be abandoned by customers.