Development Status of Shoe Mold Industry
Shoe mold manufacturing is one of the precision traditional processing application. The complete process is: 2D\3D drawing design → wooden mold making → casting → mold making →exturing → sandblasting → electroplating / spraying Teflon protection treatment, in the entire manufacturing of the industry chain, a lot of labor and high costs are required to comply with the strict requirements of environmental protection; since 2015, domestic SLA manufacturers have begun to use light curing technology to replace traditional wood mold processing. After several years of continuous iteration and update of technology, the industry application has achieved good results, cost advantages and the appearance of finer surface textures, but it still needs casting cooperation to complete.

However, SLM technology by direct metal printing, eliminating complicated processes such as wooden molds, casting, and texturing, achieves faster product delivery, more three-dimensional pattern presentation, and more environmentally friendly manufacturing methods. Metal 3D printing shoe molds have become the focus of attention of major shoe mold manufacturers, with test involved and application promotion, which will inevitably set off a revolution and innovation in the shoe mold industry.

Printing rubber sole (parts)

Aluminum alloy test digital pattern + Molded plastic parts

Using this shoe model case for data testing, the total weight of the sample is 4.5 kg (a pair of shoe soles), and the printing time is 39 hours using the HBD-350T machine. The comprehensive printing cost has been reduced to about 238USD/Kg. The use of metal 3D printing shoe molds can delivery a complete set of molds in 5-7 days. Compared with traditional processing methods, the efficiency is significantly improved, and more complex shoe molds with anti-counterfeiting lines can be produced, and benefits for saving of precision casting & CNC site management and labor cost.

Although the application of shoe molds has made great breakthroughs in recent years, there are still areas to be improved, such as shorten printing time, improve printing material, smooth the parting line, control the precise after printing etc.

Therefore, regarding the technical difficulties in the application of shoe molds, we are gradually breaking through and will make fundamental reforms to strongly assist the new development of metal 3D printing technology in the shoe mold industry.

HBD has studied and explored the application of the shoe mold industry since 2019, after continuous printing tests, effect analysis and adjustments, and with repeatedly demonstrated and comprehensive cost-effective analysis, we launched the HBD-350/350T metal 3D printer with exclusive shoe molds printing processing package, which specifically to solve the professional demands of the shoe mold industry, and to meet the production needs of customers.