Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is revolutionizing the manufacturing of metal shoe molds by offering unprecedented design flexibility, precision, and production efficiency. As the footwear industry increasingly demands customized and lightweight products, SLM provides a competitive edge by enabling the creation of complex, durable molds directly from digital designs.
What is SLM Technology? SLM, or Selective Laser Melting, is an advanced metal additive manufacturing process that uses a high-powered laser to fully melt and fuse fine layers of metal powder into solid 3D objects. This layer-by-layer technique allows the fabrication of intricate geometries that are difficult or impossible to achieve with traditional machining methods.
Additive Manufacturing Advantages
Green intelligent manufacturing
• Clean up the green production environment and significantly reduce environmental pollution caused by the entire production process.
• Compared to traditional manufacturing production environments, the additive manufacturing intelligent factory provides a comfortable production environment for employees.
• Digitalization, flexibility, and automation of production methods help the shoe mold industry move towards a new stage of sustainable development.
Free Design
• Additive manufacturing has broken the limitations of traditional manufacturing processes on design, enabling the footwear industry to achieve unlimited creativity in design.
• The pace of product renewal in the footwear sector is accelerating, and the market demand for personalized products is continuously increasing. Additive manufacturing effectively accelerates the innovation and iteration of shoe molds.
Improve efficiency
Through metal 3D printing, the overall production cycle of shoe molds is shortened, and the digital embossing technology can achieve a high degree of restoration of the precise textures of the molds, which simplifies the production process to the greatest extent, improves production efficiency and the speed of product iteration, helping shoe mold enterprises achieve efficient production, reduce manufacturing costs, and enhance product functions and performance.
Comparison of Footwear mold production processes
Traditional Footwear mold production process has 8 steps in total
Metal 3D printing Footwear mold process A total of 4 steps
RB Footwear Mold
Weight: 4kg per pair
Equipment: FS350M-4 printer
Layer thickness: 30um + 60um
Duration: 21.1 hours / dual
3D printing of RB Footwear molds enables the integration of complex and intricate patterns into a single piece, with a detail accuracy of ±0.02mm. Compared to traditional processing, the delivery time is shortened by 20%, the mold durability is increased by 20%, and the design freedom is greater.
Popcorn Footwear Mold
Weight: 7.20kg
Equipment: FS350M-4
Layer thickness: 40um+80um
Duration: 23.5 hours / dual
The popcorn Footwear mold has 16,000 single-mold pores, and the hole diameter exceeds 0.1mm, which not only achieves excellent air permeability but also avoids the problem of structural pore blockage, ensuring the lightweight and high elasticity of the finished shoe.
EVA Footwear Mold
Weight: 7.3kg
Equipment: FS350M-4
Layer thickness: 30um+60um
Duration: 45.2 hours / dual
The production process of traditional EVA foam Footwear molds usually requires hot pressing and cooling, and production efficiency often depends on the cooling time. The 3D printed EVA water channel Footwear mold integrates conformal water channels to achieve a close fit between the water channel and the mold surface, increasing production efficiency by nearly 45%, achieving the goal of improving quality and efficiency.
Traditional-Casting Strength vs. AM Powder Properties
| Material | Tensile Strength (MPa) | Yield Strength (MPa) | Elongation (A%) | Hardness (HV) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A3 | 585 | 385 | 17.5 | 140 |
| 45# | 650 | 328 | 22.1 | 190 |
| Material | Tensile Strength (MPa) | Yield Strength (MPa) | Elongation (A%) | Hardness (HV) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 316L | 670 | 415 | 51% | 185 |
| Material | Tensile Strength (MPa) | Yield Strength (MPa) | Elongation (A%) | Hardness (HV) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6061 | 364 | 321 | 9.4 | 123 |
| 7075 | 552 | 470 | 11.3 | 174 |
| Material | Tensile Strength (MPa) | Yield Strength (MPa) | Elongation (A%) | Hardness (HV) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AlSi10Mg | 370 | 230 | 10% | 100 |
| 6061 | 380 | 320 | 9.5% | 120 |
FS350M-4
• Forming cylinder dimensions: 433 × 358 × 400 mm
• Laser system: Fiber laser, 500W × 4
• Printing shoe mold size (European shoe size): 15/ pair, 23/ single
• Forming materials: Titanium alloy, aluminum alloy, mold steel, stainless steel, etc.
FS200M-4
• Forming cylinder size: 425×230×300mm
• Laser system: Fiber laser, 500W×2
• Sizing of printed shoe molds (European shoe size): 22/ single
• Forming materials: Stainless steel, mold steel, aluminum alloy, titanium alloy, etc.
High quality
• Advanced multi-layer wind field layout, enhancing printing quality
• High-quality optical path system ensures excellent printing quality
• Maximum printable EUR 23 size shoe molds, covering 99% of size requirements
Low cost
• Compact size with large forming dimensions, high output per unit area
• Compressed air consumption ≤ 5L/min, low operating cost
• FS350M can be equipped with a long-lasting circulation filtration system, reducing the frequency of filter replacement
High efficiency
• Multiple laser configuration
• Combination of size and layer thickness increases production efficiency by 40%
• Two-way powder spreading
• Shell removal function, ensuring the best balance between quality and efficiency
Case Study of Customized Solution for Footwear Mold Software
The Footwear mold selection and point distribution technology developed by ChanHonTech for shoe mold users supports users to automatically calculate reasonable hole distribution points according to the characteristics of different surfaces of the Footwear mold. Users can also customize rules to form personalized or uniform hole distribution effects for different types of surfaces. Compared with manual point distribution, ChanHon High-tech’s selection and point distribution technology reduces the time for point distribution from 6 hours to 10 minutes, and shortens the drilling cycle by 25% overall.
Footwear mold selection and spotting software function improves the punching efficiency by 25%
Traditional Spotting
• Spotting method: Manual
• Time consumption: 6 hours
• Punching cycle: 2 days
ChanHon Selective Spotting
• Spotting method: Identify the surface, and generate placement points with one click.
• Time consumption: 10 minutes.
• Hole drilling cycle: 1.5 days.
One-click Spotting of Footwear molds, combining breathability and aesthetics
EMPRESA MEXICANA DE FABRICACION DE CALZADO MEDIANTE PROCESO DE INYECCION DIRECTA AL CORTE
ME INETRESA SABER MAS SOBRE LA IMPRESION 3D DE MOLDES PARA ESTE PROCESO DE CALZADO EN INYECCION DE PVC Y TPR
QUEDO ATENTO Y GRACIAS
PPT