How to Choose Good Mold Materials?

Mold Materials

To produce high-quality products, having excellent molds is essential. In addition to careful mold design, selecting the right mold materials is crucial. Below, we discuss mold material selection from three aspects: working conditions, performance, and economic considerations. If you need to develop your own plastic product molds, we offer a full range of production services.

Meeting Mold Working Condition Requirements

1:Wear Resistance

During the plastic deformation in the mold cavity, the billet flows and slides along the cavity surface, causing severe friction and leading to mold wear failure. Therefore, wear resistance is one of the most basic and important properties of mold materials. Generally, the higher the hardness of the mold parts, the better the wear resistance. Additionally, the types, quantity, shape, size, and distribution of carbides in the material also affect wear resistance.

2:Strength and Toughness

Mold working conditions are often harsh, with some molds enduring significant impact loads, which can lead to brittle fracture. To prevent sudden brittle failure during work, molds need high strength and toughness. These properties depend mainly on the carbon content, grain size, and microstructure of the material.

3:Fatigue Fracture Performance

Under cyclic stress, molds can experience fatigue fracture, including low-energy multiple impacts, tensile fatigue, contact fatigue, and bending fatigue. The fatigue fracture performance mainly depends on the strength, toughness, hardness, and the content of inclusions in the material.

4:High-Temperature Performance

At high working temperatures, molds may experience decreased hardness and strength, leading to early wear or plastic deformation failure. Mold materials should have high tempering stability to ensure high hardness and strength at working temperatures.

5:Thermal Fatigue Resistance

Some molds are subject to repeated heating and cooling, causing surface stress changes that lead to cracking and spalling. Molds should have high thermal fatigue resistance to reduce failure risks.

6:Corrosion Resistance

In some molds, such as plastic molds, elements like chlorine and fluorine in the plastic can decompose when heated, producing corrosive gases that damage the mold surface. Thus, mold materials need good corrosion resistance.

Meeting Mold Process Performance Requirements

Mold manufacturing involves forging, machining, and heat treatment processes. Materials should have good forgeability, machinability, hardenability, and grindability, as well as low oxidation and decarburization sensitivity, and low quenching deformation cracking tendency.

1:Forgeability

Low hot forging deformation resistance, good plasticity, wide forging temperature range, and low tendency for cracking.

2:Annealing Processability

Wide spheroidizing annealing temperature range, low hardness after annealing, and high spheroidization rate.

3:Machinability

High cutting volume, low tool wear, and low surface roughness after machining.

4:Oxidation and Decarburization Sensitivity

Good oxidation resistance at high temperatures, slow decarburization rate, and low tendency for pitting.

5:Hardenability

High and uniform surface hardness after quenching.

6:Hardenability Depth

Ability to achieve a deep hardened layer after quenching, even with mild quenching media.

7:Quenching Deformation Cracking Tendency

Small volume change during quenching, minimal distortion, and low cracking sensitivity.

8:Grindability

Low wheel wear, high grinding limit, and low sensitivity to grinding conditions, reducing burn and crack risks.

Meeting Economic Requirements

When selecting mold materials, economic factors must be considered to reduce manufacturing costs. Under the premise of meeting performance requirements, choose lower-cost materials, such as carbon steel instead of alloy steel, and domestic materials over imported ones. Additionally, consider market supply and availability, opting for easy-to-obtain steel types.

Choosing the right mold materials ensures superior performance and cost-effectiveness, laying the foundation for producing high-quality products.

 

1:Plastic Mold Materials

– P20: Suitable for large plastic molds, with good toughness and polishability.

– 718: Used for high-polish molds, with excellent corrosion resistance.

– S136: Ideal for high-corrosion-resistance plastic molds, such as optical products.

2:Cold Work Mold Materials

– D2: High wear resistance and good toughness, suitable for stamping dies.

– O1: Suitable for small batch cold work molds, easy to process.

– SKD11: Good wear resistance and toughness, used for high-precision molds.

3:Hot Work Mold Materials

– H13: High heat resistance and toughness, widely used for die casting molds.

– SKD61: Good thermal strength, suitable for hot forging molds.

– 1.2344: Excellent resistance to thermal shock and wear, suitable for high-temperature molds.

4:Die Casting Mold Materials

– 8407: Suitable for aluminum and magnesium alloy die casting, with good thermal shock resistance.

– 1.2714: Suitable for large die casting molds, with high strength.

– QRO 90: Specifically designed for die casting molds, with excellent heat resistance.

 

Selecting the appropriate mold material model based on specific needs and processing methods can effectively enhance mold performance and lifespan.


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