Aluminum alloy lightweight molds have been put into use, boosting the mold-change efficiency of the automated production line by 50%.

A technological breakthrough has been achieved by using high-strength aluminum alloy materials to replace traditional steel in shoe material plastic molds. Through structural topology optimization design, while maintaining the mold’s strength, the weight of each mold set has been reduced from 200 kg to 100 kg—a 50% reduction. Meanwhile, the excellent thermal conductivity of aluminum alloy accelerates the mold’s heating rate by 25%, further shortening the shoe material molding cycle and perfectly meeting the rapid mold-change requirements of automated production lines, thereby significantly boosting production throughput efficiency.

Nano-coating empowers mold upgrades, extending service life by a factor of three.

To address the issues of wear and mold adhesion that often arise from long-term use of shoe material molds, nanoceramic coating technology has been introduced into the mold surface treatment process. After a wear-resistant coating with a thickness of 5–8 μm is formed on the mold cavity surface, the surface hardness of the mold can reach over HV1500, significantly enhancing its resistance to mold adhesion. As a result, the mold cleaning cycle has been extended from 100,000 cycles to 300,000 cycles, and the mold’s service life has increased directly by a factor of three. Moreover, this technology also reduces the amount of release agent required, thereby lowering the risk of chemical residues in shoe material production.

Innovative multi-cavity mold technology doubles the production efficiency of eyelets and shoe buckles.

To meet the demand for mass production of small footwear accessories such as eyelets and shoe buckles, high-precision multi-cavity plastic molds have increased the number of cavities per mold from 8 to 24. At the same time, an optimized guide pin and bushing precision positioning system has been integrated to ensure synchronized injection molding accuracy across multiple cavities, with accessory dimensional tolerances strictly controlled within ±0.02 mm. After implementing this technology, the production time per batch of footwear accessories has been reduced from 40 minutes to 15 minutes, doubling production efficiency. The technology has now been deployed in mass production lines serving several major sports brands.

Smart sensor molds enable full-process monitoring of injection molding, significantly enhancing production line stability.

A plastic mold for footwear materials equipped with multi-dimensional sensors has recently been put into use. Pressure and temperature sensors have been embedded at critical locations such as the mold cavity and浇口, enabling real-time collection of injection-molding process data and synchronous transmission to a cloud-based management platform. When the system detects anomalies—such as abnormal injection pressure or temperature fluctuations—it automatically issues alerts and adjusts parameters accordingly, reducing mold failure-related downtime by 60% and significantly enhancing the operational stability of the footwear production line.

Environmentally friendly molds are compatible with bio-based TPU, marking a new step forward in reducing carbon emissions and plastic use in footwear materials.

In response to the industry’s need for an environmentally friendly transformation in the footwear materials sector, specially optimized plastic molds have successfully addressed the challenges of poor flowability and easy bubble formation associated with bio-based TPU materials by fine-tuning cavity structures, gate designs, and temperature-control systems. Testing has shown that shoe soles made using these molds achieve a first-pass yield rate of 98.2% for bio-based TPU, and the molds have already obtained EU environmental certification. They are widely suitable for producing casual shoes, children’s shoes, and other footwear categories, providing crucial technical support for reducing carbon emissions and plastic usage in the footwear materials industry.

The digital transformation of the injection molding industry is accelerating, with over 20,000 enterprises now connected to industrial internet platforms. Policy subsidies are helping SMEs upgrade their operations.