The knowledge that a professional tin box buyer should to know
Tin box packaging, often referred to as tin box container ,it is made from tinplate as raw material, which undergoes various processes such as welding, stamping, and buckle boning to form metal packaging boxes.
Tin boxes are widely used in:
Packaging Industry:
Tin boxes are commonly used as high-end packaging containers suitable for various products such as candies, chocolates, teas, and coffees. They are typically designed exquisitely to effectively protect the contents while enhancing brand image.
FoodIndustry:
Due to their excellent sealing and freshness-preserving properties, tin boxes are widely applied in food packaging, particularly for products that require freshness maintenance like biscuits and nuts.
Gift industry
: Owing to their attractive appearance and durability, tin boxes are popular choices for various gifts packaging such as Christmas and Valentine’s Day gifts, promotional gifts, and corporate gifts.
Cosmetics and personal care products
: The design and material of tin boxes make them ideal for high-end cosmetics and personal care products, protecting them from light and moisture.
Stationery and handicrafts:
Tin boxes are also used as storage containers for stationery and handicrafts due to their durability, suitable for long-term storage and display.
As a professional purchaser of tin boxes, acquiring stable and high-quality tin box packaging is crucial. Finding a tin box manufacturer that can provide consistently high-quality tin boxes is essential. For bulk purchasers of tin boxes, understanding the key to good quality tin boxes lies in the quality of the tin box molds and the manufacturing materials and processes.
As a leading tin box manufacturer in China, TINPEAK tin box manufacturer imposes strict control over the production of tin box packaging molds. We will introduce how TINPEAK tin box factory produces top-quality tin box molds to meet the high-quality requirements of its customers in tin box packaging.
Introduction and Selection of Tin Box Packaging Mold Materials
A skilled artisan cannot make bricks without straw. To produce a high-quality tin box packaging mold, it is essential to choose suitable and high-quality materials for the mold. The example of tinplate mold materials is shown in the figure below.
Commonly used types of mold steels for tinplate molds include:
SKD11 Steel
SKD11 is a high-wear-resistant toughness universal cold work mold steel, high-carbon high-chromium alloy tool steel, and vacuum-degassed refined steel. It has pure steel quality, excellent hardenability with good quenching penetration, and minimal quenching deformation. SKD11 is a Japanese grade, and its relative Chinese material is Cr12MoV.
Cr12MoV steel has high quenching penetration, and sections below 300-400 mm can be fully quenched. It maintains good hardness and wear resistance at 300-400°C, with higher toughness than Cr12 steel and minimal volume change during quenching. It can be used to manufacture various molds and tools that withstand large impact loads, such as complex shaped punching dies for tinplate, inserts on complex tin box packaging molds, deep drawing dies for steel plates, wire drawing dies, thread rolling plates, cold extrusion molds, cold shear scissors, circular saws, standard cutting tools, and gauges.
It is widely used in mold for aluminum, zinc die-casting, etc. This steel is a tungsten-containing high-temperature advanced alloy steel suitable for hot working and making molds for aluminum, magnesium, zinc, copper alloy die-casting, etc. SKD11 is produced by Hitachi and Daido Steel Mills. The commodity name for Hitachi’s SKD11 is SLD (the latest improved version is called SLD-MAGIC), and for Daido Steel Mills, it’s DC11. SLD-MAGIC and SKD11 have the same surface treatment conditions (CVD or TD, etc.). SLD-MAGIC improves the adhesion of the surface treatment film according to the optimal alloy elements. SKD11 is a cold mold steel with high strength, toughness, and thermal balance. In recent years, it has been increasingly developed towards high toughness and other aspects with the development of isotropic products. It can prolong the life of tin box packaging molds, make their performance more stable, easy to process, and have minimal thermal deformation. SLD-MAGIC has better toughness than SKD11, especially for improving issues such as peeling and cracking to achieve high toughness, making low-temperature tempering more effective. The grinding performance of SLD-MAGIC is better than that of SKD11 and 10% Cr steel, and it is almost optimized equally with 8% Cr steel. To achieve the highest hardness and dimensional stability, tools or molds are immediately cryogenically cooled to -80°C to -70°C after quenching, maintained for 3-4 hours, and then tempered. Tools or molds treated with cryogenic cooling have a hardness 1-3 HRC higher than those treated with conventional heat treatment.
DC53 Steel
DC53 steel is a new type of improved cold work mold steel based on SKD11, with its technical specifications listed in the Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) G4404. It overcomes the weaknesses of SKD11 in high-temperature tempering hardness and toughness, with toughness twice that of SKD11. It is expected to completely replace SKD11 in the general and precision mold fields. DC53’s toughness is outstanding among cold work mold steels, and tools made from DC53 rarely crack or fracture, significantly enhancing their service life.
Applications:
Precision stamping dies: Precision blanking dies for wire cutting and various types of stamping dies.
Tools for plastic deformation of difficult-to-machine materials.
Molds for cold forging, deep drawing, and thread rolling.
Excellent Characteristics:
DC53 has higher heat treatment hardness than SKD11. After high-temperature tempering (520-530°C), DC53 can achieve a hardness of HRC62-63, which is higher than SKD11. Therefore, DC53 with its strength and wear resistance can outperform SKD11 in terms of performance.
DC53 has twice the toughness of SKD11. Among cold work tool steels, DC53 has the highest toughness, which helps prevent cracking of tools and molds. Tools made from DC53 rarely show cracks or fractures, thereby improving their service life.
DC53 can reduce the size of massive carbides compared to SKD11, often improving them to less than one-third of SKD11’s carbide size. This helps prevent tool damage such as chipping and fracture.
Practical Features:
DC53 exhibits better machinability and grindability than SKD11, resulting in longer tool life and reduced machining hours.
It has higher quenching hardness performance than SKD11, improving deficiencies in hardness during vacuum heat treatment.
High-temperature tempering can reduce residual stress and eliminate residual austenite, preventing defects such as cracking and deformation during wire cutting operations.
Surface hardness after surface hardening treatment is higher than SKD11, thereby enhancing mold performance.
Due to lower preheating and post-heating temperatures compared to SKD11, repair welding operations are simpler.
These properties make DC53 steel highly suitable for demanding applications in mold making, especially where high toughness, wear resistance, and improved machinability are required.
D2 Steel
D2 steel is highly wear-resistant, with a high carbon content of up to 1.5% and chromium content up to 11.5%. After heat treatment, it can achieve a hardness of up to HRC60. D2 steel is used in making silicon steel punching dies, cold cutting scissors, trimming dies, etc.
Characteristics:
Although domestically produced Cr12Mo1V1 steel, American D2 steel, and Japanese SKD11 steel have similar chemical compositions, their performance differs significantly. After heat treatment, domestically produced steel has a slightly orange-red hue, tends to deform greatly, and is prone to unexpected fatigue fractures during actual use. D2 steel has a cold white hue, lower hardness than SKD11 steel, less toughness than SKD11 steel, and may develop minor notches at high stress points. SKD11 steel has a glossy appearance and the best overall performance.
High wear resistance, can be vacuum heat treated to HRC60-62, excellent machinability.
Applications:
Suitable for various cold stamping molds and cold shear blades with high wear resistance and long service life, such as complex tool steels prone to deformation, cold cutting edges, thread rolling plates. It is also used in cold extrusion forming, stretch film, stainless steel sheets, and hardness calibration molds for high-hardness materials.
Used for stretching molds for refrigerator compressor rear covers, quenched hardness HRC56-58.
To improve the service life of D2 cold work mold flat steel, the addition of rare earth elements improves both wear resistance and impact toughness, thereby enhancing the service life of round mold flat steel.
Due to higher vanadium (V) and molybdenum (Mo) content in D2 steel compared to Cr12MoV steel, it offers better comprehensive performance, gradually replacing traditional Cr12MoV steel.
Cold punching dies for thread rolling wheels and clutch adjustment plates made from D2 steel can increase service life by 5-6 times compared to Cr12MoV steel.
D2 steel is chosen for its exceptional wear resistance and suitability for applications requiring high hardness and longevity, particularly in environments involving cold working and severe mechanical stresses.
55# Steel
55# steel is a high-strength medium carbon steel. After processing, it exhibits high surface hardness and strength but poor plasticity and toughness. It has moderate machining performance, poor weldability, and poor quenching penetration, with a tendency to crack when water-quenched.
Characteristics and Applications:
Generally used after normalizing or quenching, it is suitable for parts requiring high strength, wear resistance, elasticity, and withstanding dynamic and impact loads. Applications include gears, wheel rims, flat springs, crankshafts, and it can also be used as castings.
A3 Steel
Now referred to as G2357 carbon structural steel, it belongs to category A steel. Manufacturers of this type of steel only guarantee mechanical properties upon factory delivery, without guaranteeing chemical composition, so impurities such as S and P may be slightly higher. It has a carbon content of around 0.2%, roughly equivalent to No. 20 steel and similar to the new standard Q235. This type of steel is one of the most widely used due to its moderate carbon content, which provides good balance in terms of strength, plasticity, and weldability, making it excellent in overall performance. However, the term “A3 steel” is now only used colloquially and is no longer used in written expressions.
In addition to selecting appropriate and high-quality iron box packaging molds, a rigorous manufacturing process for iron box packaging molds is also crucial.
Here’s an introduction to TINPEAK Company’s process for manufacturing iron box molds:
Mold Production Process, Using Custom Engraving Molds as an Example
As shown in the diagram below, this is the precision processing equipment for cast iron molds, capable of custom engraving on cast iron materials.
Formulating Processing Plan
Based on customer requirements, formulate the knife mold design and processing plan. First, communicate with the customer about the characteristics and dimensions of the product material to assess feasibility of cutting. Customers provide CAD engineering drawings for mold design. If there are no drawings, product samples must be provided. Designers can perform a “two-dimensional” scan based on the sample shape, then create engineering drawings. Finally, the drawings are confirmed by the customer, and once confirmed, an order can be placed.
Designing Engineering Drawings
After placing the order, the business department sends it to the engineering department, where a designated person designs CNC engraving machine engineering drawings. Details such as the blade angle declaration and marking of materials for slow wire cutting are noted.
Wire Cutting Processing
The slow wire department cuts the fixed-size materials according to the wire drawings, designs the wire walking program, and hands it over to the CNC machining department upon completion. As shown below, this is the wire cutting equipment.
Rough Machining with Precision Carving Machine
Firstly, rough machining is performed on the material of the knife mold. The entire steel plate is set up on the machine to begin designing the cutting program, focusing solely on the knife mold. Machining directly on the steel plate requires extremely high precision in craftsmanship, involving repeated machine setups, which can be time-consuming.
Precision Carving
The dimensional tolerance of the mold is kept below 0.015mm. During the carving process, different spiral blades are used multiple times to ensure accuracy up to 0.015mm. Currently, efforts are continuously being made to further enhance precision in this process.
Finished Mold Inspection
After CNC machining is completed and the mold is cleaned, it is handed over to the inspection department for corner repairs. Manual processing is required for edge angles (as shown below), utilizing high-magnification microscopes to inspect blade smoothness, confirm blade angles, measure tolerances, hardness, and more.
Sample Testing
Upon confirming compliance, samples are cut and tested to ensure every knife mold is perfectly sharp and flawless.
These details are crucial for professional buyers of cast iron tin boxes when choosing a tin box manufacturer. A supplier like TINPEAK Company, capable of providing stable and high-quality products, would be your optimal choice.
