Use of Abrasives in the Mold Industry

The mold industry is an important application field of new and high technologies in all types of industrial production. In recent years, China's mold industry has witnessed a rapid development. The mold industry is moving towards an independent industry from the appurtenance that depended highly on import. The world mold manufacturing center is also shifting to China. Consequently, China has become both a producer and a consumer country of mold. As the consumable during the mold production process, abrasives demand and application in the next few years are worth paying attention.

Current Situation of Mold Companies

Although the mold industry has a broad market prospect, the current mold market, influenced by financial crisis and the economic downturn both in China and abroad, has seen an obvious decline in orders and unit price. What's worse, the rising costs have resulted in bankruptcy of some mold companies. Fortunately, some competitive mold companies in China have sprung up, especially in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province. If they unite as one, the difficult situation can be solved.

Abrasive Tools for Mold Polishing

According to relevant research, usually the annual output value of a mold enterprise is around ￥500,000,000 to ￥5,000,000,000, among which abrasive and abrasive tools account for 10% or so. The abrasive tools frequently used in mold production process include: abrasive paper, abrasive stone, felt wheel, polishing paste, alloy file, diamond card grinding, fiber stone, and circular rotating grinding machine.

Abrasive paper: 150#, 180#, 320#, 400#, 600#, 800#, 1000#, 1200#, 1500#;
Abrasive stone: 120#, 220#, 400#, 600#;
Felt wheel: cylindrical, cone;
Polishing paste:1#(white)，3#(yellow)，6#(orange)，9#(green)，15#(blue)，25#(brown)，35#(red)，60#(purple);
Alloy file: square, circular, triangle, etc.
Diamond card grinding: cylindrical, straight cylindrical, long cylindrical;
Fiber abrasive stone: 200#(black)，400#(blue)，600#(white)，800#(red).

Mold Polishing Process

1. Rough polishing
2. Semi fine polishing
3. Fine polishing

Factors That Influence Surface Polishing

1. The condition of workpiece surface
2. The quality of rolled steel
3. Technology for heating processing
4. Polishing Technologies

Polishing process is a very important process during mold production because it is a matter of the quality and service life of mold. A good master of the required working principle and procedure of polishing process and choice of reasonable polishing method and abrasive products can help improve the mold's quality as well as service life.

Mold factories have different requirements for abrasive and abrasive products. For example, a cellphone mold factory usually has a higher requirement for the abrasives suppliers. Most of them import materials from overseas countries. The most important thing for abrasives companies is to provide good-quality products and complete services. For mold equipment suppliers, the requirement is high precision, good materials, and timely maintenance work.

Author: Liwei Chu
Copyright: iAbrasive.com--Abrasives & Diamond Tools Market