Injection Mold Industry: Precision and Green Development Drive Manufacturing Upgrade
Known as the "Mother of Manufacturing", injection molds serve as the core equipment for plastic product molding, and are widely applied in numerous sectors such as automotive, electronics, home appliances, and medical devices. In recent years, with the rapid rise of emerging industries like new energy vehicles and smart terminals, coupled with the comprehensive popularization of the green manufacturing concept, China's injection mold industry is moving away from the traditional extensive development model and stepping into a new stage of high-quality development centered on precision, intelligence, and green sustainability, emerging as a crucial driving force supporting the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing sector.
In terms of industry scale, China has become the world's major producer and consumer of injection molds. According to data released by the China Die & Mould Industry Association, the market size of China's mold industry exceeded 480 billion yuan in 2024, among which injection molds accounted for over 55%, reaching a market size of 264 billion yuan and ranking first globally for consecutive years. Leveraging the advantages of a well-established manufacturing industrial chain, the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions have evolved into core clusters for the injection mold industry, gathering more than 60% of the country's above-scale mold enterprises and forming a complete industrial ecosystem covering mold design, material supply, processing and manufacturing, and after-sales service.
Breakthroughs in precision technology have become the key to enhancing the industry's competitiveness. Traditional injection molds generally feature a precision level of 0.05mm, which struggles to meet the demands of high-end manufacturing. Today, with the popularization of advanced equipment such as five-axis machining centers and high-speed milling machines, as well as the widespread application of integrated CAD/CAM/CAE design technologies, the precision of China's injection molds has achieved leapfrog progress. Some high-end products now boast a precision level of 0.01mm, which can accurately meet the molding requirements of high-end products including microelectronic components and precision medical devices. In the new energy vehicle sector, injection molds used for battery casings and interior parts must not only satisfy complex structural design requirements but also ensure consistency in mass production. Thanks to breakthroughs in precision technology, the localization rate of injection molds for automotive use in China has risen to over 85%, effectively reducing reliance on imported molds.
Green transformation has become an inevitable trend for the industry's development. Guided by the "dual carbon" goals, the injection mold industry is promoting green transformation across the entire process, from material selection and production processing to waste disposal. In terms of materials, the R&D and application of biodegradable plastic molds and molds dedicated to recycled plastics are continuously deepened, reducing the use of non-degradable materials. In the production phase, the penetration rate of energy-efficient injection mold equipment has exceeded 45%. By optimizing mold structural design to lower clamping force requirements, the energy consumption of a single mold during production has decreased by 20%-30% compared with traditional equipment. In the field of waste disposal, the industry has generally implemented a recycling and reuse system for mold production waste. At present, the plastic waste recycling rate has exceeded 90%, and some enterprises have achieved closed-loop recycling of production waste, significantly reducing resource waste and environmental pressure.
Intelligent upgrading is accelerating the improvement of industrial efficiency. The integration of industrial internet and internet of things technologies with the injection mold industry is deepening, and intelligent molds have emerged as a new hotspot in the industry's development. Smart injection molds equipped with real-time monitoring, data collection, and automatic adjustment functions have been put into application in mass production. By embedding sensors inside the molds, key parameters such as temperature and pressure during the molding process can be monitored in real time. Once deviations occur, the system can automatically adjust process parameters, effectively improving product qualification rates. Meanwhile, the application of 3D printing technology in mold manufacturing is gradually becoming widespread. Using 3D printing rapid prototyping technology to produce mold cavities and cores can shorten the mold development cycle by 30%-50% and significantly reduce the production costs of small-batch and customized molds.
Looking ahead, as the demand for injection molds from emerging industries continues to upgrade, the industry will face higher technological challenges and development opportunities. On one hand, the localization of high-end equipment and the independent controllability of core materials will become the focus of the industry's technological research. On the other hand, the level of green sustainability and intelligence will be further enhanced, driving the injection mold industry towards a more efficient, environmentally friendly, and precise direction. As a key link in the manufacturing industrial chain, the high-quality development of the injection mold industry will provide solid support for China's transformation from a major manufacturing country to a manufacturing power.
