Development and Application of Mold Industry - Taking Taiwan Market as an Example

The technical capability and flexible processing technology of Taiwan's mold manufacturing industry have been promoting the competitiveness of Taiwan's overall industry.

With the prosperity of industrial development, stamping dies and plastic molds have become the two mainstreams of the mold industry. Automobiles, electronics, machinery, home appliances, and other products, whether metal or plastic products need the support of the mold industry. Taiwan's mold manufacturing industry has formed an overall processing environment. Both mold manufacturing and mold accessories have a complete supply system and support and have created brilliant output values.

The mold industry is a basic development industry that seeks refinement, change, and speed in various countries. The technology manufacturing industry is an industry that changes rapidly and has a short product life cycle. With rapid technological innovation, Taiwanese mold manufacturers need faster R&D speed and the ability to commercialize emerging technologies. For Taiwan's industrial development, the source of Taiwan's mold manufacturing industry is important.

For Taiwanese mold manufacturers, regardless of whether the market is internal or external, whether the production base is relocated to the mainland or sticks to Taiwan. To survive in the mold market, they must thoroughly analyze the status quo, break through the status, and carry out industrial upgrading and innovation.

The market environment faced by Taiwanese mold manufacturers is as follows:

• The mold product life cycle is short.
• The market changes rapidly.
• Low price competition.
• Customers have higher quality requirements.
• The demand for customized small amounts and variety is increasing.

Challenges faced by Taiwanese mold manufacturers:

• The Taiwan mold factory has a small scale of operation, many outsourced productions, and the quality is not easy to manage.
• Technical gaps appear, the technical depth of personnel is insufficient, and there is a lack of comprehensive technical talents.
• The degree of automation is low, relying too much on manpower.
• The Taiwan market is small and the development space is limited. Taiwan Mold is facing industrial restructuring and needs to further expand and transfer outward.

Taiwan has been able to manufacture almost all types of molds, and Chinese mold manufacturing has been integrated into the international mold manufacturing system, occupying a part of the international mold market. China's mold manufacturing industry is developing well, and Chinese molds are more cost-effective, which provides more competitive advantages for Chinese mold manufacturers. The mold industries on both sides of the strait have their characteristics and complement each other's advantages. With the sharp reduction of mold tariffs, Taiwan's mold manufacturing industry has gained a more competitive advantage in the Chinese market. For Taiwanese mold manufacturers, challenges and opportunities coexist. Therefore, Taiwan mold manufacturers must break through the status, so that Taiwan mold can develop better.

Development of Medical Mold:
The market has a huge demand for modern medical devices, which has promoted the development of the medical device industry and the development of precision medical device molds. Precision molds and ultra-precision molds for the production of medical equipment spare parts play a pivotal role in the manufacture of medical equipment. China is a country with a large population, low labor costs, and a good technical foundation. Many industrially developed countries have transferred precision medical mold production to reduce production costs.

Products produced by medical injection molds are closely related to human health, so people have strict requirements for medical molds. So what are the requirements for medical molds?

• High requirements for mold steel materials: Medical molds generally have high requirements for service life, so the requirements for mold steel materials are also high, and good steel materials must be used.
• There are more and higher production standards for medical molds: The production standards are reflected in the products, and there are many molds with national standards for product sizes. The standards for molds are mainly fully automatic production, multi-cavity, and no burrs.
• Precision equipment is required for medical molds: High requirements for the precision and cleanliness of injection molding machines.
• High requirements for medical mold design: For medical products, the structure of the design must be reasonable, and it must meet the design characteristics, performance, and functional requirements of the medical market.
• Medical mold development capabilities need to be continuously improved: High-capacity medical molds require the ability to develop high-cavitation molds for thin-walled parts. For mold manufacturers, the medical market is in growing demand.
• Medical molds have high requirements for product finish and quality and have the high precision characteristics of precision molds.
• The maintenance of medical molds is important: Anti-rust and anti-pollution treatments must be in place.

Due to these characteristics of medical molds, for medical mold manufacturers, not only the technology must be innovated, but the process must be refined. Precision medical molds are one of the company's key research and development projects.

Development of Microinjection Mold:
Microinjection molding is a close-tolerance molding process used to make very small parts and assemblies. The microinjection molding process is useful in medical molds, and microinjection molded parts are used in surgical equipment and other applications. The microinjection molding tooling process is popular in electronics and other industries, and the trend in manufacturing continues to be smaller.

In addition to the size of the micro-injection molding mold being significantly smaller than the size of the traditional mold, it has the following advantages:

• Due to the small size, the number of mold cavities is reduced, which is conducive to improving the balance of the mold and improving the accuracy of product appearance and size.
• Due to the small size, it is easier to control the stability of the mold temperature, which meets the requirements of precision mold forming and saves the energy required for mold heating/cooling.
• A hot runner system is recommended.
• Micro-injection molding molds have the advantages of high efficiency and low cost.
• The purpose of the micro-injection molding mold is to produce micro-products, so there is no competition with other macro-injection molding processes, which is its outstanding advantage.

Due to the small size of micro-injection mold products, higher requirements are put forward for the design and manufacturing technology of molding molds. Therefore, as a professional mold manufacturer in Taiwan. Deeply understands that micro-injection mold manufacturers need to have the following Require:

• Accumulated rich experience in traditional plastic mold technology.
• The mold production workshop has standardized process procedures.
• Equipped with a high degree of automation, equipped with precision injection equipment such as micro-injection machines.

The development history of micro-injection molding is not long, but it is a technical field with great development potential because it has been widely used in the fields of optoelectronic communication, image transmission, biochemical medicine, information storage, precision machinery, sensors, etc. The development of micro-injection molding molds provides more development opportunities for micro-injection molding mold manufacturers, and will surely usher in a broader prospect.