Slabs and molds are widely used in industrial manufacturing. Generally, the shape is confirmed to customers by hand molds, and the molds are mass-produced after confirmation.

    The first sample of the product is commonly known as the prototyping board. Early industrial samples were made by hand, so they were called slabs. When the product's design drawing is published, the finished product is generally not perfect or even unusable. If there is a defect in direct production, it will be completely scrapped, which will waste manpower and material resources and time. Generally, the prototype is a few samples. Short, loss of manpower and material resources, can quickly identify the lack of product design and then improve, providing sufficient basis for product stereotypes and mass production. A mold is a production tool that can produce parts with certain shape and size requirements. In industrial production, various molds and tools used to obtain the desired product by injection molding, blow molding, extrusion, die-casting or forging, smelting, stamping, etc., are known as the "mother of industry". The manufacturing and development of molds includes processes such as manufacturing, verification, mold testing, and mold repair. Almost all industrial products must rely on mold forming. It can be seen that the hand mold has the following functions in the field of industrial product development and manufacturing:

(1) Check the design. Shouban is not only visible, but also touchable. It can intuitively reflect the designer's creativity in the form of physical objects, avoiding the disadvantages of drawing beautifully and making it bad.

(2) Inspection of structural design. Because the hand board can be assembled, it can intuitively reflect the reasonableness of the structure and the ease of installation, which facilitates early detection of problems and solutions.

(3) Avoid the risk of direct mold opening. Because the cost of mold manufacturing is generally high, relatively large molds are worth hundreds of thousands or even millions. If an unreasonable structure or other problems are found during the mold opening process, the losses can be imagined. Prototype models can avoid such losses and reduce the risk of mold opening.

(4) Shouban greatly advances the product launch time. Due to the advanced nature of the production of the prototype, you can use the prototype as a product to advertise before the mold is developed, and even the preliminary production and sales preparation work can also occupy the market design process early.

    Slab mold design and manufacturing process largely determine the quality of the mold, which in turn affects the quality of the final product produced by the mold. The requirements for mold design and production are: accurate size, smooth surface; reasonable structure, high production efficiency, easy to automate; easy manufacturing, high life, low cost; design meets the needs of the process, economic and reasonable. For plastic molds and die-casting molds, it is also necessary to consider a reasonable pouring system, the flow state of molten plastic or metal, and the location and direction of entering the cavity, that is, to design the flow channel system.

    The application of 3D printing in the field of hand mold design and manufacture is self-evident. The models printed by VANSHAPE's series of light curing 3D printers can completely replace traditional hand molds to a certain extent, making mold opening not only fast, but also revolutionizing mold processing. It is the integration of mold processing and quality Promotion. The application of 3D printing technology in mold design and manufacture is mainly in the following aspects:

(1) Break the mold of the mother of industry. Through 3D printing, moldless manufacturing can be realized, especially in terms of new product development, personalized customization, small batch production, complex special-shaped structure products, and splicing-free integrated molding manufacturing. 3D printing can already replace the traditional mold manufacturing method. Change the mold industry.

(2) Direct 3D printing of molds or mold parts that can be used for production. For example, injection molds, stretching molds, die-casting molds, etc. can also be used for mold repair.