At present, Japan's mold manufacturing technology is still a world leader. According to industry statistics of Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Japan, Japan has a total of about 10,000 mold production plants, of which more than 91% are under 20 people. That is to say, Japanese mold industry is mainly SMEs, mainly relying on specialized division of labor to complete high-quality mold design and manufacturing. As Japan's specialized division of labor is well done, the overall manufacturing level of small and medium-sized mold companies is high, mold made in Japan has become a brand and a symbol of high quality. In recent years, Japan's die casting mold have grown significantly. Luo Baihui, Secretary-General of International Mould Association, pointed out that Japanese molds currently face five major issues-shortening delivery time, reducing manufacturing costs, improving mold quality and precision, labor shortage, and meeting challenges of Asian countries. In response to this situation, many Japanese mold and downstream companies are actively moving to China. For example: Toyota Motor invested USD 584 million to build a fourth plant in China with an annual output of 100,000 vehicles in Changchun.

There are about 7,000 mold companies in United States, and more than 90% are small enterprises with less than 50 employees. Due to high degree of industrialization, American mold industry has already become a mature high-tech industry and is at the forefront of world. American mold steel has achieved standardized production and supply. CAD / CAE / CAM technology is widely used in mold design and manufacturing. Advanced equipment is provided for processing technology and inspection. Development of large-scale, complex, precise, long-life, high-performance molds has reached leading level.
But since 1990s, US economy has faced major adjustments and changes in post-industrial era, and it has also faced strong international competition—from cost pressures, time pressures, and competitive pressures, and it has had to shift to China. For example, number of domestic diecast company in United States is decreasing year by year, but demand for die casting parts has not decreased, especially in automotive industry. To meet this demand, US either sets up factories overseas to produce die castings or purchases from overseas, its regional targets are mainly concentrated in Southeast Asia. After General Motors invested $ 250 million in construction of GM’s China park and technology research center in September 2008, Ford has clearly stated that its long-term strategic plan in Chinese market is unchanged. Chrysler is actively seeking to establish a long-term and stable partnership in China. Domestic media have also reported that overseas buyers have to buy auto parts from China, with amount ranging from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. Luo Baihui, secretary general of International Mould Association, believes that this global move will inevitably provide a larger market space for die casting industry. According to statistics, supply of aluminum alloy wheels in China accounts for about 40% of US market. Production and export of aluminum alloy wheels for automobiles at the end of "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period are accelerating.

Germany has always been known for its superb processing skills and precision machinery and tools, and its mold industry has fully reflected this feature. With regard to complex industrial field of molds, after many years of practical exploration, German mold manufacturer have reached a consensus: entire industry must be coordinated, work together, tap development potential, jointly carry forward spirit of innovation, common technological progress, learn from each other's strengths, and give full play to the overall advantages to achieve industry's success. In addition, in order to meet needs of rapid development of new products today, not only large companies have established new development centers in Germany, but many small and medium-sized enterprises have also done so, taking initiative to do research and development for customers. In terms of research, Germany has always been very active and has become an important foundation for its unbeaten presence in international market. In fierce competition, German mold industry has maintained a strong position in international market for many years, and export rate has been stable at about 33%.
According to statistics of German tool and mold industry organization, German Machinery Manufacturers Association (VDMA) Tool and Mold Association, there are about 5,000 mold companies in Germany. In 2003, German mold output value reached 4.8 billion euros. Among them, there are 90 (VDMA) member mold companies. Output value of these 90 backbone mold companies accounts for 90% of output value of German molds. Most of them have bases in China. German ZF Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Chinese passenger car manufacturer Yutong Automobile, and successively established strategic alliances with two mainstream Chinese commercial vehicle companies. Continental, another German component giant, has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Sinotruk.

 

Since 1997, state has successively included molds, their processing technologies and equipment in "Catalogue of Industries, Products and Technologies that State currently encourages to develop" and "Catalogue of Industries that Encourage Foreign Investment", and has implemented preferential policies for value-added tax return on some key professional mold factories; in 1999, state also included related mold technology and products into "Guidelines (List) of Key Hi-tech Industrialization Priorities for Current National Priority Development" issued by State Planning Commission and Ministry of Science and Technology. Above measures have all promoted rapid development of China's mold industry.

In 2005, total output value of China's mold industry has jumped to third place in the world, reaching 61 billion yuan. In 2010, total output value of mold industry reached 112 billion yuan. Total output value of China's mold industry (average annual growth rate is more than 16%), number of enterprises, number of employees, and total labor productivity are increasing year by year.

Growth rate of China's mold product imports has been decreasing year by year, and export value has been increasing year by year. Ratio of imports and exports has decreased from 6.6: 1 in 1999 to 2: 1 in 2006. Export molds are still mainly low-end, while import molds are mainly high-end. Main gaps are concentrated in precision, large, complex, long-life molds and other high-tech molds.

During "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, China's mold technology has developed rapidly. In terms of large-scale precision and complex die-casting molds, China has been able to produce escalator integral pedal die casting mold and automobile rear axle gear box die casting mold. However, there is still a large gap compared with foreign countries. Precision and complex hot stamping dies and car dies, engine block dies, and transmission dies urgently needed by China's manufacturing industry still rely heavily on imports.

 

Die casting industry is one of important supporting industries of automotive industry, and has been closely related to development of automobiles. Rapid development of automotive industry in recent years has driven rapid expansion of die casting market and has given it a broad prospect for development. Today, with development of automobile manufacturing technology, die castings are also facing new technical challenges, and structure of die casting industry is undergoing tremendous changes.
Die castings have a wide range of applications, involving quite a few product areas and industrial categories. In all of these applications, if it is comprehensive in many aspects such as large number, large variety, strict requirements, high quality, and large amount of metal materials, automobile industry should be promoted first. Luo Baihui, Secretary-General of International Mould Association, said that for a long time, automotive industry has steadily occupied the largest market of die casting industry. In recent years, development of China's auto industry has also continuously pushed die casting industry into a new development period.
Application of die casting in automobiles keeps pace with times. From the end of 20th century to the beginning of 21st century, proportion of the total supply of die-casting parts to automobile industrial vehicles was about 48 to 80%. For example: 80% in Australia, 79% in Japan, 65% in Spain, 64.5% in China (including cars and motorcycles), 61% in Germany, 60% in India, 49% in Canada, and 48% in United States. According to recent reports, proportion in United States has risen to about 75%. Automobile industry uses such a huge share of die castings, which shows its important position in die casting industry. As far as China is concerned, in recent years this proportion has remained between 65 and 75% (including vehicles, motorcycles and other means of transportation). As far as automobile part is concerned, this proportion has also shown a trend of sharp increase year by year.
As for amount of die castings used in each car, taking United States as an example, in the early 1980s, average weight of each car (depending on the type of vehicle) was in the range of 1315 to 1542KG, and thereafter it has gradually decreased year by year. In terms of amount of aluminum alloy casting in each car, it is gradually increasing. In 1980, average car was 34KG, in 1990 it was 68KG, in 2000 it was increased to 111.3KG, and in 2009 it was 157KG. Among them, aluminum alloy casting It accounts for more than 65% of all aluminum castings.
In addition to aluminum alloy casting, automobiles also use zinc alloy, magnesium alloy and copper alloy die castings. Therefore, amount of die castings in each car can be imagined, and die casting industry is closely related to automotive industry.
Review development history of world's automotive industry. In the design and application of various parts, use of die casting parts is very important, especially complex, large, and important parts, which are usually listed as major research topics. This not only illustrates irreplaceability of die casting industry in this regard, but also highlights that development of die casting industry is largely based on automotive industry. In other words, die casting industry is one of important supporting industries of automotive industry.
Nowadays, people's requirements for automobiles are more and more inclined to high performance, low pollution and low energy consumption. There are two ways for cars to reduce energy consumption: one is to improve motion system; the other is to reduce weight of car, that is, to reduce weight of car. The most effective way to achieve lightweight is to switch to lightweight materials to manufacture automotive parts. In the 1970s, use of aluminum alloy castings (including various casting methods) instead of cast iron was the best choice, and slogan "Aluminum instead of iron" prevailed for a time. At that time, automobile manufacturing industry found that among various aluminum alloy casting, die castings should be placed in the most important position. Therefore, use of aluminum alloy casting as important parts of automobiles has swept the world.
After that, with gradual tightening of emission regulations in Europe and United States, requirements for energy saving and emission reduction on automotive industry have become higher and higher. At this time, finding materials that are lighter than aluminum alloy casting to make important automotive parts has also become one of research and development directions. It is worth mentioning that in the past ten years, some leading manufacturers in automotive industry have proposed idea of more parts made of magnesium alloys, and have achieved certain results.
It is worth mentioning that most of the high-tech developed and innovative in die casting industry are centered on high-tech requirements of automotive industry, including: various requirements on various systems such as power, transmission, steering, car body, and framework. Parts, some of which are structural parts, force parts, safety parts, and decorative parts. Among them, the most notable such as: use of a complete set of aluminum alloy 390 die casting technology to die-cast an all-aluminum cylinder block, abandoned original aluminum alloy casting cylinder block into cast iron sleeve method; using new aluminum alloy SF36 with ultra-low iron content to manufacture automotive body frame connectors, changing traditional manufacturing method of car body; using titanium aluminum alloy (TIAI) to die-cast automotive valve valves, opening up a new field of titanium alloy die casting technology; aluminum alloy casting diesel engine housings have come out in recent years. Six-cylinder engine block molds have been opened by Heli molds and successfully applied to mass production.

 

In achieving weight reduction of automobiles through magnesium alloy die casting, certain results have been achieved, some current research hotspots, main research and development directions have been formed. For example, use of medium-magnesium alloy die-casting parts in power system and transmission system enables magnesium alloy die-casting parts to be further expanded in automotive industry. However, it should be pointed out that when considering magnesium alloy die casting and considering using magnesium alloys to replace other alloys, materials, and production parts, we should first understand characteristics of this material, must not act blindly, and should pay careful attention to safety and environmental protection during production. Another example is to develop various technological methods for solving pores. These methods include vacuum die-casting, oxygen-filled die-casting, uniformly-accelerated slow-injection technology, and local pressurization technology; moreover, extrusion casting and semi-solid molding (including rheological type and thixotropic type). All these have undoubtedly injected new vitality into die casting method, thereby making it possible to obtain die casting parts with characteristics such as high strength, high density, heat treatment, and weldability.
In addition, in recent years, application of calculator simulation technology in die casting has become more and more widespread, which has made die casting method even more powerful, and continuously expanded scope of application of die castings. Most of these are based on needs of automobile parts as a breakthrough, which fully reflects that die casting process method has an extremely broad market space in continuously meeting various new requirements for automobile parts manufacturing.
It is worth noting that accelerated development of fuel cell vehicles (also known as "hybrid vehicles") has become a hot spot in automotive industry. According to relevant data analysis, although manufacture of this type of vehicle will affect scope of application of cast technologies to a certain extent, design of parts for this model must still use die castings, which will not impact die casting in automotive industry too much.

National foundry mold manufacturing enterprises can be roughly divided into following categories: First category is foundry mold professional factories (including joint ventures and wholly-owned enterprises). These enterprises have advanced equipment and excellent technology, are main force of foundry mold industry; second category is foundry specialty. Third type is private mold factories that have developed rapidly in recent years. These enterprises are small in scale and large in number, each with a division of labor and coordinated operations. They are located in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong. Some of these factories already have certain strengths; fourth category is some other mold factories that also serve as casting molds. Luo Baihui, Secretary General of International Mould Association, believes that casting mold manufacturing enterprises are diversified and developing to a high level, which is also an inevitable trend brought by China's economic development.
Mold factories of developed countries are generally divided into independent mold factories and mold factories affiliated with some large group companies, which are generally not large in scale, but have a high degree of specialization, high technology, and high production efficiency.
Foreign mold companies generally do not exceed 100 people, most of them are under 50 people. In terms of personnel structure, design, quality control, and marketing personnel exceed 30%, and management personnel are below 5%. Annual per capita output value exceeds 1 million yuan, and the highest can reach more than 2 million yuan. Personnel structure of some private and joint ventures in domestic mold companies is similar to that of foreign countries, but personnel structure of some state-owned enterprises is not yet reasonable. Gap in annual per capita output value is still large, most of which are 100,000 to 200,000 yuan, and a few can reach 400,000. Yuan.
Foreign mold companies have higher requirements for personnel quality, and technical personnel have more than one expertise. They can generally complete design from process to tooling; operators have a variety of operating skills; marketing personnel have a deep understanding and mastery of molds. Domestic mold companies have a relatively fine division of labor and lack of highly qualified personnel.
CAD / CAM / CAE technology is widely used in foreign mold companies, reverse engineering and rapid prototyping casting molds are also widely used. Some backbone manufacturers in domestic mold companies have little difference with foreign countries in this regard, and some have reached foreign standards, but some small and medium-sized mold companies have a large gap with foreign countries. With regard to mold materials, with introduction of foreign technology and improvement of China's own research and development capabilities, gap is gradually narrowing.