The development status of China's mold industry. Since the 1980s, China's mold industry has developed very rapidly. The rapid development of the national economy has put forward higher and higher requirements for the mold industry, which has also provided a huge impetus for its development; Over the years, China's mold industry has been growing rapidly at a growth rate of about 15%. At present, there are more than 17000 mold manufacturing plants in China, with more than 500000 employees; In 1999, the total output value of China's mold industry reached 24.5 billion yuan (Table 1). About two-thirds of the total industrial output value is produced and used by enterprises themselves, and about one-third is sold as commodities. In the total output value of the mold industry, stamping molds account for about 50%, plastic molds account for about 33%, die casting molds account for about 6%, and other types of molds account for about 11%. Since the reform and opening up, the ownership of China's mold industry enterprises has also undergone tremendous changes. In addition to state-owned professional mold factories, mold manufacturers in other forms of ownership, including collective enterprises, joint ventures, sole proprietorships and private enterprises, have developed rapidly. Collective and private mold enterprises have developed most rapidly in Guangdong, Zhejiang and other provinces. For example, in Ningbo and Huangyan, Zhejiang, there are thousands of collective enterprises and private enterprises engaged in mold manufacturing, becoming the well-known "hometown of molds" and one of the most dynamic regions in China. In Guangdong, some large group companies and rapidly rising township enterprises have joined in the investment in mold manufacturing in order to improve the market competitiveness of their products; For example, Kelon, Midea, Konka and Weili have established their own mold manufacturing centers. Chinese foreign joint ventures and wholly foreign-owned mold enterprises are mostly concentrated in coastal industrial developed areas, and there are thousands of them now. For example, Jiangsu Wuxi Microresearch Co., Ltd. is a Japanese sole proprietorship enterprise with more than 200 employees and more than 60 precision CNC mold processing equipment. In 1998, its mold output value exceeded 200 million yuan.  

The technical level of China's mold industry has also made considerable progress in recent years. At present, China has been able to produce precision multi position progressive dies with a precision of 2 microns, with a maximum of 160 working positions and a service life of 100 to 200 million times. In terms of large-scale plastic molds, we can now produce plastic shell molds for 48 inch TVs and plastic molds for 6.5Kg large capacity washing machines; And automobile bumper, integral dashboard and other molds. In the aspect of precision plastic mold, domestic production has been able to produce camera plastic mold, multi cavity small module gear mold and plastic packaging mold. In terms of large precision and complex die-casting dies, domestic production has been able to produce the integral pedal die-casting die of escalator and the die-casting die of automobile rear axle gear box. In the aspect of automobile dies, it has been able to manufacture some panel dies for new cars. Other types of molds, such as radial tire activating mold, aluminum alloy and plastic door and window profile extrusion mold, have also reached a high level and can replace imported molds.

Although China's mold industry has made remarkable development in the past ten years, there is still a big gap between China and developed countries in many aspects. For example, the proportion of precision processing equipment in mold processing equipment is still relatively low, the popularity of CAD/CAE/CAM technology is not high, and many advanced mold technologies are not widely used. In particular, there is a significant gap in the technology of large, precise, complex and long-life molds. The production capacity of these types of molds cannot meet domestic demand, so they need to be imported from abroad in large quantities. (Baoying Power Supply, specializing in the production of voltage regulators and transformers)