Steel Mold

Inox Steel Mold

Looking for a partner with rich experience in the manufacturing industry? Inox Cast is your premier choice to meet your needs. We are dedicated to different operations and prioritize supply top-quality steel molds.

Inox Cast steel molds have a variety of selections from features, sizes, finishes, coatings, functions, applications, shaping modes, materials, and more. It has great advantages and custom by your desired products like medical component productions, auto parts, hardware, household appliances, devices parts, electronic components, and more.

Inox Cast steel molds can produce different shapes with the perfect surfaces using different materials like plastic, glass, aluminum, stainless steel, and more. We designed steel molds to support different fabrications from different small parts to and body parts.

It is able to produce different objects for the kitchen, constructions, building materials, computer parts, tables, chairs, appliances parts and covers, baking components, and more plumbing components. We can meet your needs through our quality steel mold production.

Inox Cast can meet your demands whatever your production handled. You can send your desired product project details so we can make the best steel molds for you. Inox Cast uses the complete range of machinery for different processes to create steel molds for different applications.

We, Inox Cast have great offers from perfect quality surface moldings, services, to the lowest price offer. It is widely applied in many large factory fields. Inox Cast has quality-related business scope, equipment, in-house tooling, engineering, and more.

As your personal custom supplier of steel molds, we ensure a satisfying complete range of services providing complete information. Send your inquiries now!

Steel Mold: The Ultimate FAQ Guide

I know you are probably looking for high quality and reliable steel mold for production processes.

A reason this guide explores everything you need to know about steel mold – from features, specifications to maintenance process.

You will find everything you need right here.

Keep reading

1. What Is Steel Mold?

This is a cavity made from steel for processing plastic or metal parts.

It forms an integral tooling system in metal parts making. Where, you will pour heated metal which takes the shape of the cavity.

A Steel Mold

2. Why Choose Steel Mold?

When choosing steel molds, there are factors that need to be considered;

Superior durability for complex features: Delicate or complex features can have a hard time withstanding the forces involved in molding. Steel mold has a super excellent balance of strength, cost, and machinability.

More finishing options:  Finishes of some surfaces can only be produced with steel mold.

Long lifespan:  Steel molds can produce millions of high-quality parts. Longevity can be improved by hardened grades of steel, most especially with abrasive materials.

Long term lower per-part cost: steel mold can have lower maintenance costs, which reduces operational cost and increases uptime.

3. Which Type Of Steel Is Suitable For Mold Design?

P20 Steel: Due to the great machinability as well as other properties, P20 Steel is widely used for die casting dies.

That is for zinc and also for plastic injection mold cavities and tooling. P20 Steel is also under plastic mold steel.

H13 Steel: The fittings of aircraft industry are made from H13 Steel. Also, the treatment deformation is small.

H13 Steel has high hardenability, toughness and medium wearing resistance.

D2 Steel: The heat deformation of D2 steel is small. SAE D2 has wear resistance and great hardenability.

After quenching and polishing, its corrosion becomes better. It’s also a great material for cold work with long life and high precision.

Mold steel 718: With sample processing technic, mold steel 718 is commonly used in the mold industry. It has great machinability and mechanical property.

4. How Does Steel Mold Compare To Aluminum Mold?

Ideal for detailed features: Steel mold is a great choice for products that have high-precision detailed features than aluminum mold, this is due to its hardness and strengths.

On the other hand, aluminum mold is not suitable for highly detailed features due to its softness.

Extremely great for high volume: Steel mold is ideal for high-volume production compared to aluminum mold, this is due to its strength, as long as the mold receives the proper maintenance.

But when it comes to aluminum mold, it’s not suited for long production or high volume.

Durability: steel mold has the potential to lower cost per part and it is great for long production compared to aluminum mold which may withstand thousands of shots but not for a long production run.

Suitable for advanced resins: Steel mold is compatible with advanced formulas as well standard resins whereas aluminum mold with complex injection molding resins might not be compatible.

Aluminum mold

Steel mold

5. Are There Limitations Of Steel Mold?

Yes, they are as follows:

• Steel mold takes a longer time to heat and cool, which can slow production time.
• Initial tooling investment is high.
• Difficult and expensive to repair molds that have been damaged during the production process.
• For low-volume runs it’s not cost-effective.
• More prone to warping and defects.

6. What Is The Lifespan Of Steel Mold?

In the case of P20 steel life guarantee is over 300,000 molding cycles, and H3 steel mold life expects at least 500,000 mold cycles.

Depending on the material and the geometry of the part, steel molds are good for a lifespan of 100,000+ parts.

After steel mold has been in production for a while, it needs to be reworked.

7. How Much Do Steel Mold Cost?

Steel mold cost anywhere starting at $100 for a 3D printed low-volume injection mold to $100,000+ for high-volume production of a complex multi-cavity steel mold.

In steel injection molding, it normally represents the fixed start-up.

The building and designing cost of a steel mold depends on the complexity of the part design, required production volume, and the creation process of the steel mold.

Multi cavity steel mold

8. Where Can You Use Steel Mold?

• To manufacture the molds, including die casting, cold punching mold, hot forging, and more.
• In the industry of radiometers, machinery manufacturing, and motors, it is used as a processing tool.
• It’s used for plastic injection mold cavities and tooling.
• Used in the industry of aircraft to make the fittings.
• Used in the industry of mold.

9. Which Features Should You Look For In Steel Mold?

High core strength – steel mold should withstand high compressive loads without splitting or cracking.

Corrosion resistance – Corrosion-resistant steel mold, such as PAK90A and S136H prevents damage of molds since halogen-containing plastic materials e.g. polyvinyl chloride and polyacetal often release corrosive gases.

Dimensional stability – Steel mold must acquire durability and enough strength to resist permanent deformation but sufficient ductility to resist impact loading and cracking.

Excellent surface finish – Steel mold surface finish should sustain a good long-term without any requirement added of polishing between production runs.

Machinability – The pre-hardened steel with great machinability is used as the mold insert. Low hardened steel during cutting can be machined conventionally. Steel mold is also difficult to ensure the accuracy of the cavity and the service life of the mold.

Good wear resistance – Wear resistance on the post-processing of mold life, overflow removal, precision maintenance, has considerable influence.

It also adds property modifying alloying element or hardening of the material.

Multi cavity steel mold

10. Which Terminologies Are Commonly Used In Steel Molds?

Sprue hole: A small hole in a die casting mold that allows in die casting runner, raw materials, and parts.

Clamping plate:  It mounts mold tool on die casting and it’s found inside a mold.

Runner: It’s the material channel that directs the flow of melt starting from the sprue to die casting product.

Mold cavity:  A plate that is recessed and it allows molten materials to solidify and fill in.

Draft:  An angle at which the die casting product falls off from mold tool so easily.

Gate: a small device than runner that controls the way for the melt to enter the cavity. It also connects runner to the molding.

Vent: It is a small space that assists gases or air out from the mold and it recess from the mold cavity and core.

Slide:  This mechanical device produces some special features that cannot be produced by the mold core and cavity side.

Injection:  It’s a filling process by which molten material is forced by high pressure into tool mold.

Mold core: casting mold removable part that is used mainly to shape the interior cavities of casting.

Ejection pins: After the moldings have solidified and mold opened, this device is used to force the molding components out of the mold tool.

Hopper: The raw material is poured into this container to feed the material inside the cylinder for processing.

Operating widow: It is used to describe the condition of mold and molding machine, such as cooling period, melt, pressure, and temperature.

Plates: They are either rectangular solids or circular solids that are available in various lengths, diameters, widths, and thicknesses. The plate has to accept the impression or cavities and all other required operating mechanisms by the design.

Screw: It provides frictional heat and transport material to the front of the cylinder ready for injection.

Parts of steel mold

11. What Are The Considerations In Steel Mold Design?

Some of the main considerations:

• Check out if the shrinkage rate is correctly designed.
• Check if all the lifter or sliders are located correctly. And if the slider will move smoothly.
• Design the best working process of die casting based on analysis of the material, product structure, tolerance, and some other special requirements.
• Look-through slider number, mold cavity, and other mold accessories.
• Check out if the parting lines and ejection mark are designed properly i.e. reasonable and minimum.
• Define product layout, parting line, ejection pins, cavity, gate, overflows, and runner.
• When mold is working check out if there is any interference.

12. Why Is Steel A Perfect Material For Mold Design?

a) Good wear resistance: Hardness is the main factor of wear resistance. The wear resistance of a mold is the basic and most important. Generally, good wear resistance is due to the high hardness of the die with lower loss. In addition to that, the amount, type, and shape of the carbide are related to the wear resistance of mold steel. The problem of wear resistance is solved when the hardness of the cavity surface increases. In general, wear resistance is proportional to hardness.

b) High core strength: The material should withstand high compressive loads without splitting or cracking. During injection molding, the result of the service condition encountered, that is, relatively high compressive loadings, the core strength material it’s of importance to the mold designer.

c) Machinability: Injection molding components processing can be divided into casting processing, machining e.g., grinding, milling, polishing, fitter, numerical control milling, etc., and electrical processing such as wire cutting, electrode, etc.

d) High-temperature property: The die steel resistance tempering must be of high stability so that the mold has hardness and high strength during working time in high temperatures. The mold gets plastic deformation and becomes useless when the hardness of it gets down, and this happens when the temperature is high in the working time.

e) Dimensional stability: The steel mold should possess durability and sufficient strength to resist permanent deformation but enough ductility to resist impact loadings and cracking. Steel mold is subjected by the cyclic loads’ nature of the injection molding process to considerable stress elastic deformation level.

f) Corrosion resistance: Make the surface become tougher then raise the loss mold, to prevent the attack of the surface of the mold cavity.

Plastic has fluorine, chlorine, and other elements, the HF, HCL, and other etchant gas will come out after the heating and decomposition.

g) Great surface finish: The surface finish material must sustain a good long-term with no requirement added of polishing between production runs. For the core and cavity components, a great surface finish of service is of the utmost relevance.

13. How Do You Test Quality Of Steel Molds?

There are a number of tests you can perform including:

• Performing heat treatments, hardness tests.
• Verify that the steel mold has a sufficiently low hardness and acceptable microstructure after spheroidizing annealing.
• Rating the degree of banding and microgregation.
• Charpy impact testing is done to verify that it can be heat treated correctly and meets the minimum impact energy requirement.
• Rating inclusion cleaning.

14. How Can You Maintain Steel Mold?

Here are some of the processes that will help you maintain steel mold:

1. Check Whether The Operation Of The Steel Mold Is In The Normal State.

• Activities including guidepost, ejector rod, and row position worn and lubrication is good.

It requires at least 12 hours to add high-temperature lubricating oil, and the special structure to increase the number of refueling.

• Whether low-voltage mode-locked protection is available.
• Clear the front of the slider.
• Whether the shunt cones and sprue bushing are worn.

2) Normal Conditions Of Production.

Check whether the defects of the product relate to the mold.

3) When The Machine Is Off, A Comprehensive Inspection Of The Mold And Anti-rust Treatment Should Be Carried Out:

a. Wipe dry cavity, ejector mechanism, core and row position, and spray mold anti-rust or smear butter.

b. Clean the mold face

c. Check the mold parts if they are damaged, make a record for repair or replacement.

4) The Molds Should Be Placed In The Designated Place After Getting Off The Machine Inspection, And Keep The Recorded Conditions In The Designated Area.

• Check the internal anti-rust effect by opening the mold. If there is an abnormal circumstance, the anti-rust treatment should be performed again. Butter to be coated to the mold that is not used to long term.
• Place the mold to be repaired and store it in the storage area for standby after the completion of repair.
• Routine inspections every season mainly maintains and clean molds used for over two months. Make inspection records and put them back in place.

15. Why Should You Import Steel Mold From China?

High Output With Limited Time:

Capacity and timeline are problems faced by all manufacturers but it is not a cause for concern from China steel mold manufacturers.

Cheap labor, you can have a large number of people work on your product leading to higher output within a short period of time.

Lower Production Cost:

Working with steel mold manufacturers from China will significantly reduce your production cost without tampering with the quality of the product or the output.

Quick Access To Opportunities And Market:

You will be provided with an opportunity of marketing your products locally when you outsource your whole production to China.

Doing a local production will enable you to establish a supply chain, giving you access to the market of 1.3 billion. This will result to an impressive investment.

For all your steel molds, contact Inox now.