Mold is an important process equipment in material forming processing. Products that can be produced often have many times value of mold itself, and mold can easily mass produce a large number of parts with value and satisfying quality requirements. Therefore, molds are widely used in machinery, electronics, automotive, information, aviation, aerospace, light, military, transportation, building materials, medical, biological, energy and other industries. About 60%-80% of parts and components in above industries rely on injection moulding process.
Therefore, level of mould manufacturing has become an important indicator of level of manufacturing in a country. Not only that, rapid development of injection molding industry can also give strong support to manufacturing industry. Industry-driven ratio of injection molding industry is about 1:100, that is, development of injection molding industry is 100 million yuan, which can drive development of related industries by 10 billion yuan.
China's mold industry started late, but development speed is very fast. Thirty years of development has made China a world mould manufacturing and consumption country and established a injection molding industry system. China's mold sales in 2017 exceeded 200 billion yuan, and consumption of China plastic injection molding of 243.3 billion yuan supported production of 27 trillion yuan of products. Qin Hao, secretary-general of China Die & Mould Industry Association, said at "Mould Manufacturing Reporting Conference" held on the afternoon of April 10 this year that China plastic injection molding companies are well equipped, mould manufacturing ecosystem is healthy, and has a significant effect on benefits amplifier for downstream products manufacturing. Boosting development of China's equipment manufacturing industry, market-oriented capacity enhancement is reflected in core parts manufacturing enterprises in integrated industrial chain. Injection molding industry for consumer support such as automobiles and consumer electronics is an indispensable part of these manufacturing industries.
Especially in recent years, with rapid development of China's automobile industry, electronic information, home appliances, building materials and machinery industries, mold industry has achieved rapid development. According to statistics of National Bureau of Statistics, total industrial output value of China plastic injection molding industry has increased from 136.731 billion yuan in 2010 to 240.091 billion yuan in 2016. In 2017, it reached a new level of 250.99 billion yuan.

 

However, between 2010 and 2016, China plastic injection molding production showed fluctuating changes. In 2016, China plastic injection molding production was about 17.23 million sets, a decrease of 0.46% from same period of previous year.

 

Total industrial output value of injection molding industry has continued to grow. At present, China plastic injection molding production has ranked among top in the world, and there are many mold companies. However, overall level of injection mold design and manufacturing is lagging behind Germany and United States. Specific performance is that molds with low technical content have been oversupplied, while medium and high-grade molds with high technical content are far from being able to adapt to needs of national economic development, such as high-end molds, precision and complex stamping dies and plastic injection molding, car cover molds, electronic connectors and other electronic product molds still rely heavily on imports.

First of all, technology of injection molding industry has been comprehensively improved. In order to adapt to new situation, China plastic injection molding industry has continuously improved its technical level in recent years. Many injection molding companies have applied CAD/CAE/CAM integration technology, 3D design technology, ERP and IM3 information management technologies, as well as high-speed processing, rapid prototyping, virtual simulation, robotics, intelligent manufacturing and network technology. There are more companies with various quality system certifications now.
In general, injection molding companies should continue to learn advanced technology in production process, and strive to develop information technology, technology integration, equipment precision, manufacturing digitalization, refinement, high-speed processing and automation.
Second, economies of scale are significant, cluster development is expected to accelerate. With continuous development of "small but fine" specialization, scale effect has been paid more and more attention at the same time in recent years. In addition to making injection molding companies bigger and bigger, and making economies of scale produce benefits, production of mold clusters also shows its superiority. Therefore, various types of cluster production such as “Mould City”, “Mould Park” and “Mold Production Base” have developed rapidly throughout country.
Third, attach importance to brand patents, strengthen innovation, research and development. For a long time, molds have been in “rear” and “passive” positions, so there are few “brands” and “patents”. With development of market economy, injection molding companies have paid more and more attention to "brands" and "patents" in recent years. Some injection molding companies have recognized importance of innovative R&D and their investment has increased rapidly.
Fourth, talent training in injection molding industry has increased. Although workforce of injection molding industry in China has developed rapidly in recent years, it is estimated that it has reached nearly one million people, but it still cannot keep up with development needs of industry. First, total amount is insufficient. Secondly, quality is not enough to meet the needs of development of industry. According to survey, number of employees in national injection molding industry is about 300,000-500,000, of which engineering and technical personnel account for about 20%. At present, high-quality and high-level mold enterprise management personnel, middle and high-level technicians, senior technical workers are particularly scarce.
Finally, import dependence is high. Although China plastic injection molding industry has entered fast lane of development, a number of enterprise innovations in China plastic injection molding industry have entered a new stage from tracking to tracking and running, and some enterprises have entered first square of international manufacturing. However, in general, there is still a big gap between international level and advanced industrial countries in terms of accuracy, longevity, manufacturing cycle and capability. Therefore, it cannot meet the needs of development of China's manufacturing industry. Especially in precision, large, complex, long-life molds, it is still in short supply, and a large amount of imports are needed every year. According to customs information statistics, total import and export of China plastic injection molding in 2017 was US$7.54 billion, an increase of 11.01% over previous year. Total import value was US$2.051 billion, an increase of 2.43% over previous year; total export value was US$5.49 billion, an increase of 14.61% over previous year.
Increase in exports is far greater than increase in imports, which also shows that China plastic injection molding industry has made extraordinary progress. In the future, China's mold products will continue to develop in direction of large-scale (multi-process, multi-component, multi-cavity) precision, high performance and integration. Injection molding companies has already changed from drawing processing to injection mold design and forming research that is integrated into downstream users of mold. While providing mold and mold forming process, it also provides peripheral equipment for mold forming, that is, injection molding companies is still working with downstream customers of mold. A partner integrator that provides product. Reconstructing relationship between mold and user, providing a new model of differentiated, customized, personalized and precise service zero-part forming overall solution, making injection molding companies an important part of inseparable molding equipment support for future downstream customers.