We will educate you on the advantages and disadvantages of working with the two most commonly used materials steel and aluminum, as well as other materials. Specifically, we will discuss why each is the best option for the task at hand.

Aluminum is more expensive than steel and has a shorter lifespan. In order to achieve the best results, the most appropriate material for the EX MOULD base and core should be selected based on the project specifications.

Aluminum, on the other hand, has some disadvantages. In addition, when compared to steel, the texture selection is limited due to the low density of the material used. Additionally, because of the constant wear and tear on the surface of the mold, carving more than one undercut can become a problem. This results in the need to modify the entire mold rather than just a specific area, which results in greater differences in the output quality of the final product. As soon as a few thousand production cycles have passed, the cavities of the mold begin to wear out, causing nonconformities in the finished product and consequently increasing the cost of the tooling. It would be necessary to anodize or nickel plate aluminum in order to bring it up to the hardness of steel in terms of hardness.

Aluminum has a heat transfer rate that is five times greater than that of copper. Because of improved conductivity, the location of cooling lines becomes less critical, allowing for the placement of more mold components. With aluminum, it has been demonstrated that the production cycle time can be reduced by up to 30%. Aluminum's heat treatment process is far superior to that of steel because it does not require the metal to be sent to a separate facility for annealing. A metal is subjected to an annealing process, which is a type of heat treatment that removes internal stresses and toughens the material. Aluminum is more cost-effective than steel in terms of production. Despite the fact that an aluminum mold has its advantages, it is only capable of producing between one and two thousand units, whereas steel molds can guarantee a minimum of 50,000 units in a single run. When it comes to tooling, aluminum is unquestionably the most cost-effective option for small production runs because it is a fraction of the cost of steel.

P20 steel is a versatile low alloy steel that is characterized by its hardness and moderate strength levels. It is used in a variety of applications. When purchased pre-hardened, it has a hardness of approximately 40 to 50 HRC (the Rockwell Hardness Scale ranges from zero to hundred). Because of the homogeneous mixture of alloys used in the P20 steel, the material's hardness is uniform throughout the entire material. The presence of metals such as chromium and nickel in P20 steel increases the strength and hardness of the steel, making it more desirable than other types of steel. Having said that, the most significant impact these characteristics will have on the finished part is the ability of a mold to produce thousands of parts with the least amount of wear and tear. This is especially useful for large production runs of more than 50,000 parts.

In your search for injection mold tooling materials, you may have come across Maraging 300, PAS 940, and Berlin Copper, to name a few of the options. They have properties that are similar to P20, but their selection is restricted to a small number of niche industries. Because of their unique composition and properties, these materials can be quite expensive. Let us now turn our attention to aluminum. Aluminum, much to the surprise of most people, can provide leveraged advantages. Some of them are as follows:

Regardless of whether you are looking at steel or aluminum Plastic Injection Mold, it is important to remember that most molds are precisely made using a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) tooling machine to ensure precision. A CNC machine is a computer-controlled machine that automatically cuts, cavities, and applies special finishing to a block of material by using drills, saws, and/or other tools to cut, cavity, and apply special finishing. As a result, it is extremely important to select a material that can be cut by a CNC machine in the first place. 

Although it is ultimately up to you to decide which route to take in terms of tooling, taking into consideration overall project requirements such as production volume can be a great guide in terms of selecting the most appropriate material for your project. It is possible that your choice will save you money in both the long and short term. Furthermore, harder materials such as P20 necessitate the use of specialized tools and more effort during the milling process than their aluminum counterparts, raising the overall cost of the material.