5 Die and Mould Trends

March 29, 2016 3:49 pm

Experts from the industry speak about the trends that will help die and mould industry to flourish in the coming years
  Die and mould industry is a key constituent of the vital capital goods trade that is considered as the ‘Mother of the Manufacturing’. Die and Mould Associations in India are looking forward to achieve engineering excellence with an aim to establish India as a global manufacturing hub.
The domestic die and mould industry is undergoing dramatic change, with major OEMs developing and manufacturing the products locally. There is an increase in demand especially from the commercial tool rooms. Globalisation is making the traditionally competitive business even tougher. As a result, die and mould makers must rethink both their short-term and long-term strategies. The tooling industry as a whole which counts die makers and mould makers as its two most prominent groups is not just experiencing a drastic change but a complete restructuring with far-reaching implications.
“The main role to drive die and mould industry in 2016 will be the latest technological trends in tooling industry along with cost-effective, energy efficient and environmental friendly solutions for the dies and mould makers. The innovation  engaged in design, manufacturing of dies for pressing, stamping, punching and forming; injection and compression moulds; die casting dies; patterns and pattern equipment’s; jigs and fixtures; standard. Tooling component; CAD/CAM; rapid prototyping; 3D printing or additive manufacturing; gauges; precision machining; special machineries and related products will set the trend of 2016,” says Keshav Khurana, Executive Director, Wohlhaupter India Pvt Ltd.
1. Compete on valueAdapting to the changing times is imperative for die and mold makers. “Tool making has undergone a cultural shift, moving away from being considered a craft demanding high degrees of skill to being increasingly viewed as a commodity, something that anyone can perform with the right technological tool at hand, such as 3D parametric solid modeling, rapid tooling and high-speed machining, etc. As a result, die and mold makers can’t rely on old business models but must instead focus on targeting niche markets and developing specialized products, materials, processes and customer knowledge in order to survive in today’s market. In other words, they must try to compete on value instead of cost,” says Sadananda Koppalkar, Head – Business Development – EDM – Die and Mould, Makino India Pvt Ltd.
2. New generation manufacturingApart from the conventional technologies like die sinking and wire EDMs, the new generation manufacturing extensively uses hard machining and complex profiling on multi-axis machining centres to completely finish the die and mould with little need for manual finishing and correction. Supporting these machining methods are new developments in design analysis, inspection techniques and complex programming systems.
3. Less time, more productivityChanging customer expectations and rapid model changes requires a fast turnaround in the manufacture of dies and moulds. “Presently, production demands require the ability to react to frequent product changes, shorter production runs, lower inventory levels and higher productivity.Adapting to the demands quickly and adding value to the product with less dependency on manpower is the key to move up on value chain and sustain in such scenarios,” explains Koppalkar.
4. Produce cost competitive moulds“Many new launches in automotive sectors with different designs and shapes will increase demand for dies. Health Industry people are more cautious thus Mineral water bottles, many new segment in food industry storage, Pharmeuticals etc will create new demand. We can see different creative toys which we have to compete with China. Today many moulds are coming from Taiwan and China we should produce molds cost wise competitive and keep delivery commitment to get this business,” says Ramkripal Yadav, Key Account Sales and Marketing, Hass Automation India Pvt Ltd.
5. High-speed machiningHigh-speed machining will lead to reduce the workload and also the costs of producing high precision surface finishes. The tool life is also extended, though proper care must be taken to tailor and balance the tool and with the use of proper CAD/CAM solutions, the risk of errors drastically goes down as it automated eventually reducing human intervention. Late Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam’s 5-point agenda for die and mould industry, which he had crafted in 2014 are as follows:
1. The industry should aspire to grow from the present ` 17000 crore sizes to over 35,000 crore by 2020. 2. Advanced product technologies such as nano technology and robotics should be encouraged across the spectrum. 3. Product quality should be enhanced to international standards with zero waste principles such as ‘Just in Time’ with continuous improvements on shop floor based on the idea of ‘Kaizen’. 4. The sector should aim to emerge as a net exporting industry by 2020, by understanding and catering to international industrial needs. 5. The industry should forge at least 20 unique partnerships with technological and management institutions across India to promote, design and run.
Khurana believes that the die and mould industry should follow the agenda mentioned by Dr. Kalam that will help drive the industry to be a critical milestone for the national economic growth.n
——————————————-The main role to drive die and mould industry in 2016 will be the latest technological trends in tooling industry.
Keshav Khurana, Executive Director, Wohlhaupter India Pvt Ltd