The goal of the Chinese company Kunshan Qingyou was to expand into the plastic molds market. In order to achieve that goal, the company has acquired five die-sinking EDM machines and more recently, two Mikron MILL P 500 machines from GF Machining Solutions.
Kunshan Qingyou Precision Mould Co., Ltd., founded in 2004 and located in Jiangsu province, China, develops and manufactures precision stamping molds. It has recently entered the production of plastic molds and produces over 600 complete sets of molds annually. The focus of the company is on the ICT segment, its ambitious objectives "to continue investing, operating and achieving the best results". With a registered capital of CNY 5 million (USD 782,632, EUR 643'275), Kunshan Qingyou currently has only 70 employees, but its customers include prestigious brands like Luxshare, Huawei and Jiangsu Gian, among others.
In order to explore the business opportunities in the plastic mold industry, the company purchased five die-sinking EDM machines and two high-performance milling machines from GF Machining Solutions in 2020. The AgieCharmilles FORM P 350 machines purchased from GF Machining Solutions are used for producing molds for acoustics, optics and powder metallurgy, while the MILL P 500 machines are used for producing electrodes for die-sinking EDM.
Liu: "The MILL P 500 is excellent in accuracy and precision."
Stable accuracy of ±4 µm
The parts produced by Kunshan Qingyou are high-precision parts for the Information and Communications Technology, including electronic products, precision connectors and mobile phone parts. For the machining of molds, dies and electrodes, long machining periods of 24 hours or longer are standard, and ensuring consistent accuracy with less than ±4 μm deviation is one of the main challenges. Electrodes are often machined for 100 hours on the Mikron MILL P 500 machining center, and throughout this time, the accuracy results are very stable at ±4 µm.
Lei Liu, who works in the plastic molds workshop of Kunshan Qingyou, has been one of the first users of the Mikron MILL P 500 and is convinced of the benefits of the machine. On the electrodes, which are mainly used for high-precision die-sinking, the final parts accuracy is around 2 or 3 µm. "For this accuracy, we need high-performance machines, with the best positioning accuracy, machining accuracy and spindle speed", Liu explains.
Ni: "We believe the products and technology from GF Machining Solutions can provide us with outstanding molds to meet our customer's demands."
Menglong Ni, the General Manager of Kunshan Qingyou, who has been working in the mold industry for nearly 20 years, is convinced that the company made the right decision when choosing GF Machining Solutions as business partner: "In my opinion, the most important factor for success is the right partner". For Ni, the GF Machining Solutions brand stands for high quality and high precision.
Examples of electrodes made with the Mikron MILL P 500
