Several trends in the development of automotive mold technology

Mould is the basic process equipment of automobile industry, more than 90% of the parts in automobile production need to rely on mould forming. Manufacturing an ordinary car needs about 1500 sets of molds, stamping molds account for about 1000 sets. In the development of new models, 90% of the workload is around the change of body type. In the development cost of new models, about 60% is spent on the development of body and stamping process and equipment. About 40% of the whole vehicle manufacturing cost is the cost of body stamping parts and their assembly.

automotive mold

In the development of domestic and foreign automotive mold industry, mold technology presents the following major development trends.

Digital mold has become mainstream

Digital mold technology, which has been developed rapidly in recent years, is an effective way to solve many of the problems faced in the development of automotive molds. The so-called digital mold technology is the application of computer technology or computer-aided technology (CAX) in the mold design and manufacturing process. Summarizing the successful experience of domestic and foreign automotive mold enterprises in applying computer-aided technology, digital automotive mold technology mainly includes the following aspects.

①Design for manufacturability (DFM), that is, considering and analyzing manufacturability at the time of design to ensure the success of the process.

②Assistive technology for mold profile design and development of intelligent profile design technology.

③CAE-aided analysis and simulation of the stamping and forming process to predict and solve possible defects and forming problems.

④Replace the traditional two-dimensional design with three-dimensional mold structure design.

⑤The manufacturing process of die and mold adopts CAPP, CAM and CAT technology.

⑥Problems arising in the process of mold trial and stamping production are handled under the guidance of digital technology.

Stamping and forming process simulation (CAE)

In recent years, with the rapid development of computer software and hardware, the simulation technology of stamping and forming process (CAE) is playing an increasingly important role. In developed countries such as the United States, Japan and Germany, CAE technology has become a necessary part of the mold design and manufacturing process, and is widely used to predict forming defects, optimize the stamping process and mold structure, improve the reliability of the mold design and reduce the mold trial time. The application of CAE technology can greatly save the cost of mold trial and shorten the development cycle of stamping mold, which has become an important means to ensure the quality of mold. CAE technology is gradually transforming mold design from empirical design to scientific design.

Mold advanced processing automation

Advanced processing technology and equipment is an important basis for improving productivity and ensuring product quality. In the advanced automotive mold enterprises with double table CNC machine tools, automatic tool changer (ATC), automatic processing of photoelectric control system, workpiece online measurement system, etc. is not uncommon. CNC machining has been developed from simple type surface processing to type surface and structure surface of the comprehensive processing, from low-speed processing to high-speed processing, processing automation technology is developing very rapidly.

Measurement technology into the mold automation

From CAD, CAM to a variety of processing technology, CNC, EDM, wire cutting also includes measurement technology. We can not simply understand the measurement is to measure the accuracy. Measurement can achieve measurement automation, from the accuracy requirements set in the CAD model as well as process requirements, the system can understand the place to be measured, so as to produce the real measurement program. In addition to the program, integration with the field is also included. With RFID reading, the program can be downloaded and inspection reports can be generated automatically.

Widely used high-strength steels

The use of high-strength steels in automobiles is increasing due to their excellent properties in terms of flexural strength ratio, strain-hardening characteristics, strain distribution capability, and crash energy absorption. At present, the main high-strength steels used in automotive stampings are baking-hardened steels (BH steels), dual-phase steels (DP steels), and phase change induced plasticity steels (TRIP steels). The International Ultra Light Body Project (ULSAB) expects that 97% of the materials in the advanced concept model (ULSAB-AVC) to be launched in 2010 will be high-strength steels, and the proportion of advanced high-strength steel plates in the whole vehicle will exceed 60%, and the proportion of duplex steel will account for 74% of the steel plates used in the vehicle.

High-strength steel stamping technology needs to break through

Now a large number of IF steel-based soft steel series will be replaced by high-strength steel series, high-strength low-alloy steel will be replaced by dual-phase steel and ultra-high strength steel plate. At present, the application of high-strength steel plates for domestic auto parts is mostly limited to structural parts and beam-like parts, and the tensile strength of the materials used is mostly below 500MPa. Therefore, the rapid mastery of high-strength steel stamping technology is an important issue that needs to be solved in China’s automotive mold industry.

Progressive die is the focus of future development

With the development of high efficiency and automation of automobile stamping production, progressive die will be more widely used in the production of automobile stamping parts. The stamping parts with complex shapes, especially some small and medium-sized complex stamping parts which need to be punched by multiple dies in sequence according to the traditional process, are more and more often formed by progressive die. Mold Master WeChat content is good, worthy of attention. Progressive die is a kind of high-tech die product with high technical difficulty, high manufacturing precision requirement and long production cycle. Multi-station progressive die will be one of the key development mold products in China.

Emphasis on high-performance mold material technology research and development

The quality and performance of mold materials is an important factor affecting the quality, life and cost of the mold. In recent years, in addition to a variety of high toughness and high wear resistance cold working mold steel, flame quenching cold working mold steel, powder metallurgy cold working mold steel launched, foreign in large and medium-sized stamping mold on the choice of cast iron materials, is a development trend worthy of attention. Ductile iron has good toughness and wear resistance, its welding performance, machinability, surface quenching performance are also better, and the cost is lower than alloy cast iron, so it is more used in automotive stamping dies.

Scientific and information management

Another important aspect of the development of automobile mold technology is the scientific and informatization of management. The scientificization of management makes the mold enterprise continuously develop in the direction of Just-in-TimeManufacturing and LeanProduction, the enterprise management is more accurate, the production efficiency is greatly improved, and the ineffective institutions, links and personnel are continuously streamlined. With the progress of modern management technology, many advanced information management tools, including enterprise resource management system (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), project management (PM), etc., are applied in mold enterprises.