Industry Insights

Under the impetus of national policies, artificial intelligence is being implemented from the national strategic level to the mold manufacturing workshops. By addressing the long-standing industry problems such as reliance on experience, low efficiency, and talent shortage, it drives the mold industry to shift from "experience-driven" to a true "intelligent manufacturing" transformation.

The empowerment of AI in the mold industry is not a single breakthrough point, but unfolds along the entire chain of "design - process - production - management".

(I) Intelligent Design: From "Human Brain Experience" to "Algorithm Generation"

In traditional mold design, engineers need to manually complete a series of complex operations such as mold part design, gate positioning, and cooling system layout. The intervention of AI is changing this paradigm.

Designers describe requirements in natural language, and the platform can automatically generate code plugins. Nearly 80% of commonly used small plugins have achieved "self-service" development. As a result: the design cycle is shortened by approximately 30%, the number of design modifications is reduced by more than 40%, the accuracy of new designers' designs has increased from 60% to 90%, which is a significant progress.

Dongfeng Mold Company launched the AI + mold intelligent assistant "Xiaomo" in December 2025, aiming to optimize processing techniques, iterate product functions, and achieve a comprehensive leap in design efficiency and quality. This company clearly stated that it will use AI technology as the engine to drive the comprehensive upgrade of design, manufacturing, and management.

(II) Process Optimization: From "Repeated Mold Testing" to "Precise Prediction"

The complexity of the injection molding process lies in the complex coupling relationship among parameters such as temperature, pressure, and speed. The traditional approach relies on experienced workers to "figure it out", which is time-consuming and costly.

Nowadays, AI is bringing this process into the digital age. The platform, through AI similarity comparison, can recommend the best design scheme and process parameters for new molds based on historical project data. The system will list the project names and reliability indices referred to in each analysis, allowing users to fully review the basis for AI decisions.

(III) Production and Manufacturing: From "Fixed Procedures" to "Autonomous Decision-making"

In more advanced explorations, AI is giving mold production the ability to "perceive" and "make decisions".

In April 2026, Excellent Vision, FAW Mold, and Alibaba Cloud collaborated to verify the operational capabilities of embodied intelligent robots in real automotive production scenarios. This humanoid robot can autonomously complete tasks such as unloading, transporting, moving, and precise operation, without requiring preset fixed paths. Instead, it adapts to complex working conditions through real-time environmental perception and dynamic decision-making. This breakthrough has compressed the scene adaptation cycle of traditional automated solutions from several months to several weeks.

In the injection molding field, the future "intelligent molds" will incorporate pressure, temperature, and wear sensors, and transmit real-time data to the cloud to achieve predictive maintenance. According to industry analysis, this is expected to extend mold lifespan by 20%-30% and significantly reduce unplanned downtime.

(IV) Policies and Enterprises: Jointly Promoting the Implementation of "AI + Mold"

The transformation of AI + mold did not occur spontaneously; rather, it was the result of the combined efforts of policy guidance and enterprise practice.

In January 2026, expert Miao Changxing from the National Strategy Advisory Committee for the Construction of Manufacturing Power in Taizhou clearly stated that AI has risen to become a "national strategic resource". The goal for 2027 is to create 1,000 high-level industrial intelligent entities in the manufacturing industry and promote 500 typical application scenarios.

When AI enters the mold workshop, it not only changes the efficiency figures but also the way knowledge is produced and passed down in this century-old industry. For the Chinese mold industry, this is both a challenge and a historic opportunity to move from being a "manufacturing giant" to a "smart manufacturing power".