In the core hinterlands of manufacturing clusters such as the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, China's mold industry is undergoing a historic transformation from "subtractive manufacturing" to "additive manufacturing". As 3D printing technology becomes key to overcoming bottlenecks in mold manufacturing quality and efficiency, ESU 3D Printing has verified the industrial potential of mold 3D printing with more than 200,000 application cases.
Deeply Cultivating for Twenty-One Years:
From a Mold Craftsman to an Industry Leader
When judging a company's strength, its historical depth and focus on a specific sector serve as fundamental benchmarks. The story of ESU 3D Printing began in 2004. Its early experience in deeply engaging in traditional mold manufacturing made the team deeply understand the pain points of the industry - uneven cooling, limited lifespan, and difficulties in processing complex structures in traditional molds had long constrained production efficiency.
In 2018, ESU 3D Printing accurately entered the metal 3D printing mold market and becoming one of the very few 3D printing service providers in China that "focus on the mold subdivision field". This focus has led to the sudden emergence of accumulated technical expertise. Today, ESU 3D Printing has built a complete R&D and production system in Shanghai, independently developed special 3D printing machines for molds, and provides full-industry-chain services for mold 3D printing.
Technical Hard Strength:
A Four-in-One Core Barrier of Materials, Equipment, Process, and Engineering
The competition in 3D printing of molds essentially boils down to a contest of core technologies. ESU 3D Printing has established insurmountable competitive barriers by building a four-in-one technical system of "materials - equipment - processes - engineering", which is also the key factor that distinguishes it from ordinary service providers.
Material research and development is the fundamental guarantee for mold performance. ESU 3D Printing, in collaboration with universities such as Shanghai Jiao Tong University, has formed a research and development team. After years of efforts to overcome material challenges, it has launched a variety of special 3D printing powders with independent intellectual property rights. Among them, the ESU-EM201 high thermal conductivity martensitic stainless steel powder has obtained invention patents in China and Europe, with a thermal conductivity of up to 80 W/m·K, which is 4 times that of ordinary mold steel, and its thermal conductivity effect is comparable to that of beryllium copper. To address different application needs, it has also developed a series of products such as ESU-EM400 high-polishing mold steel powder and ESU-EM300 high-wear-resistant mold steel powder, which fundamentally solve the industry pain points of short service life and poor performance of 3D printed molds. At present, the service life of the molds can reach hundreds of thousands of cycles, fully meeting the needs of mass production.
The synergy of equipment, processes, and engineering enables the realization of technical value. ESU 3D Printing has independently developed the E3 series multi-laser metal 3D printers based on LPBF technology, which adopt imported core components and are specially optimized for mold scenarios, allowing for efficient and stable production. At the process level, innovative 3D printing technologies such as conformal cooling channels, ESU porous steel, non-subtractive printing, and grafting printing have been developed. Among them, conformal cooling channels can make the cooling path precisely fit the mold cavity, completely changing the limitations of traditional straight cooling channels, quickly and evenly cooling the mold temperature, and shortening the molding cycle; the porous steel technology can solve the problem of trapped gas in the mold and improve product yield; non-subtractive printing can make some workpieces not require finishing; grafting printing is carried out on the machined base, taking into account both cost and use effect. Engineering design covers the entire chain of technical decisions from demand analysis to the final implementation of the scheme, which greatly utilizes ESU 3D Printing's years of experience in the field of mold 3D printing and ensures that the designed products meet customer goals.
Application Proves Value:
The Efficiency Revolution Practice Across All Industries
True technical strength must ultimately be verified in industrial applications. ESU 3D Printing has established full-scenario solutions covering ten major categories of molds, including injection molds, die-casting molds, paper-plastic molds, blow molds, rubber molds, silicone molds, tire molds, shoe molds, foam molds, and cutting dies. It serves more than 2,000 well-known enterprises worldwide and interprets "ESU Strength" through tangible improvements in quality and efficiency.
In the e-cigarette industry, a leading enterprise was once constrained by the limited space of inserts, resulting in poor cooling efficiency of traditional water channels. ESU 3D Printing customized a flat spiral conformal water channel for it, which was printed with ESU-EM201 high thermal conductivity material. This reduced the cooling time from 14 seconds to 7 seconds, shortened the molding cycle by 20%, directly increased the monthly production capacity by 138,000 pieces, and increased the annual output value of a single set of molds by more than RMB 710,000. This case has become a benchmark for efficiency upgrading in the industry, demonstrating the technological innovation of 3D printing.
In the field of cosmetic packaging, enterprises are faced with the stringent requirements of cosmetic packaging for high-gloss surfaces. By introducing ESU 3D Printing's 3D printed conformal cooling channel mold technology, the mold cooling time has been significantly reduced from 17 seconds to 9 seconds, and the injection molding efficiency has been amazingly increased by 45%! At the same time, it perfectly meets the extreme requirements of high-polished plastic parts for product appearance.
In the field of automobile manufacturing, its solutions for new energy vehicle battery shell molds have been highly recognized by automakers due to their excellent thermal management; in the field of shoe molds, its technology is subversively promoting the transformation of the industry from traditional subtractive manufacturing to mass production via 3D printing.
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