Company News

The mold manufacturing cycle depends on the complexity of the mold, its size, the precision requirements, and the current production capacity of the factory. Generally, for a medium-complexity injection mold, the period from design to the first trial run (T0) is usually between 25 and 45 days. Here is a detailed breakdown of this time period.

I. Standard Mold Manufacturing Cycle

Take a typical injection mold for household appliances or automotive interior parts as an example. Its manufacturing cycle can be roughly divided into the following stages:

Design stage (5-10 days)

This stage includes product data review, mold structure design, 3D modeling, and 2D drawing. The quality of the design directly affects the smoothness of subsequent processing. The location of the gate, the slider/skew top structure, and the layout of the cooling waterway all need to be verified repeatedly during this stage. If the product data changes frequently, the design cycle will be significantly prolonged.

Steel procurement and rough processing (3-7 days)

Mold steel (such as P20, 718H, S136, etc.) needs to be ordered from the steel mill, undergo rough milling, and leave a rough allowance before undergoing heat treatment (quenching, tempering) to achieve the designed hardness. This stage is greatly affected by material inventory and the period of the heat treatment furnace.

Precision processing (10-20 days)

This is the most time-consuming part of the cycle, mainly including CNC high-speed milling, electrical discharge machining (EDM), and wire cutting. High-precision molds require longer precision processing time. Complex surfaces and multi-slider structures often require multiple machines to process simultaneously.

Assembly and mold closure (3-5 days)

After all parts are processed, fitters perform assembly, mold closure, and mold fitting, checking the parting surface fit, the action of the ejection system, and whether there is any interference from the slider movement.

Trial run and correction (3-7 days)

After the first trial run (T0), size measurements and defect analysis are conducted based on the product status, and adjustments and optimizations are made to the gate, cooling, and exhaust. Complex molds may require multiple trial runs to meet the acceptance standards.

II. Key Factors Affecting the Cycle

Mold complexity: The complexity of the mold is the most important factor determining the cycle. A mold with multiple sliders, skew tops, heat flow channels, and complex cooling systems has a manufacturing cycle that is twice as long or more than a two-part mold. The larger the mold size, the longer the processing and assembly time.

Precision requirements: The stricter the tolerance requirements (such as ±0.005mm level), the longer the precision processing and inspection time. The processing cycle of automotive functional part molds is often more than 30% longer than that of ordinary appearance part molds.

Trial run and acceptance standards: If the client requires a full-size measurement report (FAI), CPK report, etc., or needs to conduct multiple trial runs to meet the appearance standards, this stage will significantly extend.

Factory load and parallel capacity: The current order quantity of the factory determines the equipment scheduling. Large specialized mold factories usually have multiple large processing machines and can achieve parallel processing of multiple processes, thereby shortening the total cycle.

III. Industry Common Cycle References

• Simple molds (such as buttons, small brackets): 20-25 days

• Medium molds (such as household appliance shells, ordinary accessories): 30-40 days

• Complex molds (such as automotive bumpers, dashboards, multi-slider structures): 45-60 days or even longer

In conclusion, mold manufacturing is a highly customized, multi-process collaborative complex project. Reasonable cycle planning is the prerequisite for ensuring mold quality. Rushing to complete the work often leads to increased post-processing costs and, in turn, affects the overall progress. Before the project starts, fully communicating the product requirements, acceptance standards, and delivery nodes with the mold factory is the key to ensuring the smooth progress of the project.