Indian die & mould makers can compete with global players

Mitsubishi Electric shares its perspective on the booming Die & Mould industry, and the opportunities and challenges for players in India

How is die & Mould making industry shaping itself in India? What kind of opportunities and challenges you can see?
The Die and Mould making industry in India has evolved over the years and today competes in a global arena. With an increasing demand from industries such as automobiles, auto components, packaging, plastics, electronics, electrical, healthcare and machine tools, we see a huge opportunity in the Die and Mould making industry in India.

High quality and high precision are the buzzwords of any Die-Mould business. The tool room industry is undergoing a change in manufacturing practices. Where earlier, only few important components were manufactured using the CNC machine, now the industry is switching over entirely to CNC to gain a competitive edge.

How can you describe the growth Indian die & mould industry has seen in the span of 10 years?
Die & Mould makers in India can today confidently compete with the global market and over the years have recorded transformational and all-round market growth. It has now considered as the ‘Mother of the Manufacturing’. Die & Mould Associations in India is looking forward to gain engineering excellence with an aim to establish India as global manufacturing hub. With the globalization within the die & mould industry, we are seeing qualitative improvement in the type of moulds being used in various industries.  The Indian tool room is also rapidly changing by using CNC machining to manufacture.

What kind of technologies are present in the die & mould making industry?
Lot of technologies are coming up in die & mould making industry. The segment requires best surface finishing of the Die Mould machines.
Below we list some of the technological trends that the die and mould manufacturers can try their hands on:-
1. “SSS” (Super Smooth Surface) Technology: SSS controls to provide an optimal speed control function for machining die mold with smooth surface. It also ensures high machining stability and quality with virtually no effects resulting from cutting shape or speed. As a result, the following effects can be obtained in the SSS control.

As a result, the following effects can be obtained in the SSS control.

1. A stabilized and High-quality processing is realized
   • Irrespective of the speed and shape command to achieve high quality processing in a stable.
   • There are no streaks on the processing surface even in the command shape that changes consecutively
2. Reduction of processing time
   • Conventional ratio 5:30% of time reduction (Comparison with the same accuracy)
   • Especially the effect is remarkable when feed rate is higher
3. Easy parameter setting
   • Parameter adjustment for correction of shape is not required
   • Easy adjustment such as Efficiency-oriented and Accuracy-oriented

2. Right CAD/CAM solutions: Right design is necessary for a success of any product. With the use of proper CAD/CAM solutions, the risk of errors drastically goes down as it automated eventually reducing human intervention. Generally, in CAM to create a machining program, the motion curve of the tool relative to the workpiece is calculated by approximating the minute line segments. Therefore small error is more or less included in the data of minute line segment. For example, as shown in Fig.1, there are many cases like the minute error of the zig-zag shape or the shape of a level difference is contained within the limits of the permissible error (tolerance) on CAM processing, to form the process originally.

3.  High Speed Machining: HSM is considered to be most promising technology as it helps in reducing the production time and cost of producing high precision surface finishes. The tool life is also extended, though proper care must be taken to tailor and balance the tool.

4. Rapid Tooling: Rapid tooling aims to reduce cycle times by 40% as compared to conventional machining.  The use of conformal cooling, bimetal layering and better mould materials, like aluminium, allow quicker thermal conductivity in moulds. Also, the rapid processes allow for production of inserts and mould tooling in less than 48 hours. Rapid processes are also capable of producing modifications in the tool, like undercuts or side-action easily.

What does Mitsubishi Electric India offers to the die & mould makers?
Mitsubishi Electric offers new generation controllers that are developed with many standard functions to suit the current market requirement and excel in years to come. A number of specially-developed control functions, such as “SSS” (Super Smooth Surface) — the high-grade Mitsubishi Electric CNC M70/M700V Series delivers Super Smooth Surface (SSS) Control. SSS flexibly supports various compound machining, including multipart system/multi-axis machining centres, milling and hobbing. Mitsubishi Electric provides the control necessary for high-performance milling.

With fully developed 1 nano precision -machining technology, range of special high-speed, high-accuracy functions all come as standard, resulting in faster block processing time and ensures the highest level of precision therefore resulting in shorter machining time . This functionality improves the accuracy and better productivity in machined parts.

Built in Power failure Vertical axis drop prevention function which prevents tools breakage and machined component rejection.    10/100Base-T High speed, Ethernet interface for communicating with PC, IC card interface to run big capacity programs direct from CF card and support on-line big capacity program edit in CF card. Easy one touch Power fail program restart function reduces the operator error. System memorizes the Block number when power is interrupted with MSTB history.

The following original processing modes are adopted in SSS control.

• The global shape judgment based on prediction of instruction form determines the optimal feeding speed.
• Efficient acceleration and deceleration without waste even in shape
• Processing a uniform that does not depend on the speed and shape instruction

What are the initiatives from Mitsubishi Electric India in terms of improving the competitiveness of India Die & mould industry?
Mitsubishi Electric emerges as a leading CNC controller supplier in this segment beating all the competition. Mitsubishi Electric CNC products are engineered with cutting edge solutions and technologies to meet the highest quality requirement of the precision industries. The consistent quality offered by Mitsubishi Electric  CNC reassures and attracts customers in die and mould segment.

Mitsubishi Electric India has always been providing opportunities to the tooling industry by improving competitiveness through spreading awareness and building exposure through domestic and international visits, seminars and exhibitions.