Japanese mold development strategy in the industry downturn

Due to the impact of the global financial crisis, especially the use of molds in the automotive industry and the semiconductor industry, the output value of the Japanese mold industry in January 2009 fell by 13.9% compared with the same period last year. At present, many companies have orders of only 20% to 40% of their best years. Many factories are underemployed, and only 3 to 4 days per week are started. Some have begun to close down, and the number of enterprises has decreased month by month.

For many years, the Japanese mold industry has maintained the status of the world's largest mold country and mold power. At the peak of 1998, its domestic mold output reached 1,855.4 billion yen. However, since the next 10 years, although the annual output value has risen or fallen, the overall situation has stagnated, and it has not recovered or exceeded the level in 1998. The number of mold manufacturing enterprises has also decreased year by year.

Faced with this situation, Japanese mold industry people are very worried about brain drain, especially worrying that some older and experienced talents are going abroad. The brain drain will bring disadvantages to the future development of the Japanese industry. How to actively respond to the current difficulties has become a major issue in the Japanese mold industry. The Japanese mold industry and even the relevant government departments have already considered the future development direction of the mold industry.

From the perspective of the people, Japan has proposed the following six development directions, and each aspect of the plan is detailed and can be used for reference by China.

Japanese mold development strategy in the industry downturn

Use as many high-tech as possible to improve the level of digitalization and informationization;

Exploring new areas of mold use, such as various new energy sources, new materials, and medical and aerospace fields;

Extend the mold industry chain;

Conduct diversified operations;

Update knowledge;

Do a good job in development and integration of production, education and research.

At the government level, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan has organized the “Study on the Technology Strategy of the Prime Form Technology” and recently issued the “Technology Strategy for the Prime Forms”, which is a guide. The goal of implementing this technology strategy is clear: "to grasp the lifeline of the world's manufacturing industry by mastering the important technologies of the prime shape."

This technology strategy has released a total of 344 key technology development project guides for six industries, including 47 molds. At the same time, there are 25 projects in other fields related to molds (casting, forging, stamping, powder metallurgy, heat treatment and surface treatment). This 72 key technology development projects will serve the future development of Japanese mold forming parts.

The future development direction of Japanese mold forming parts is summarized as: thin wall, lightweight; no defects, high strength; excellent surface characteristics and appearance quality; overall forming and precision forming. Of course, fast delivery, cost savings, high automation and green manufacturing are still the requirements that must be followed in mold manufacturing.

Based on this, the future characteristics of mold technology will be: the design and production technology of good molds can be developed without relying on skills; the highly automated mold production technology; the mold technology for trial mold engineering can be omitted; the mold can be delivered for short-term delivery technology. All of the above are worthy of research in the Chinese mold industry.