New National Fastener Mold Standard in Zhejiang Targets Prec

[Abstract]:Zhejiang Launches National Standard for Fastener Molds to Solve Precision and Compatibility Challenges

In August 2025, the Zhejiang Fasteners Industry Association officially launched the development of the national standard Fastener Mold Manufacturing. Led by Zhejiang Sijin Machinery Co., Ltd. and jointly participated in by over 20 research institutions and enterprises, including the Institute of Metal Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ningbo Aozhan Stainless Steel Co., Ltd., the standard is expected to be finalized and implemented by the end of 2026. This marks China's first-ever national standard specifically targeting fastener molds. It will regulate eight key indicators such as mold hardness, lifespan, and precision, aiming to solve long-standing industry challenges like poor compatibility between molds and fasteners and high attrition rates. The initiative is projected to improve mold replacement efficiency by 30% and reduce enterprise loss rates caused by compatibility errors to below 5%.

As core equipment for forming processes like cold heading and thread rolling, the quality of fastener molds directly determines the dimensional accuracy, surface quality, and production efficiency of fasteners. For a long time, the lack of unified national standards has led many domestic enterprises to rely on their own corporate or industrial standards, resulting in chaotic specifications and uneven quality. Data shows that in 2024, the product loss rate in China's fastener industry due to mold compatibility errors reached 12%, which is 7 percentage points higher than the international advanced level. Additionally, the average mold lifespan was only 80,000 cycles—less than half that of similar products from Germany and Japan—while the average mold replacement time was 4 hours, severely impacting production efficiency. These issues have not only increased production costs but also constrained the localization process of high-end fasteners.

The newly initiated national standard will focus on regulating three core areas:

Materials and Performance: The standard clearly specifies material selection criteria for different types of molds (e.g., cold heading dies should use high-hardness alloy tool steels like Cr12MoV or DC53). It mandates a hardness of HRC58-62, impact toughness of ≥25J/cm², surface roughness controlled below Ra0.4μm, and dimensional tolerance accuracy reaching IT5 grade.
Lifespan and Reliability: It requires that molds for bolts with a diameter under 10mm must have a lifespan of no less than 150,000 cycles, while those for 10-20mm bolts must last at least 100,000 cycles, with a mean time between failures of no less than 5,000 cycles.
Compatibility: The standard establishes a size compatibility database for molds and fasteners, regulating key dimensions such as mold cavity design and thread parameters to ensure interchangeability across different manufacturers.

The development of the standard will proceed in four phases: a survey phase from August to December 2025 to collect usage data from over 200 enterprises in major fastener clusters; a drafting phase from January to June 2026 combining international standards (ISO 12417-2:2023) with practical experience; a consultation phase from July to September 2026; and a final review and publication phase from October to December 2026.

The implementation of this standard is set to bring multiple benefits. For manufacturers, unified standards will cut R&D and production costs caused by specification chaos; Zhejiang Sijin Machinery estimates that R&D cycles could shorten from 3 months to 1 month, reducing manufacturing costs by 15%. For users, improved compatibility will boost efficiency—pilot data from Ningbo Aozhan Stainless Steel shows that using standardized molds reduced changeover time from 4 hours to 2.8 hours, increasing production efficiency by 12% and lowering product loss rates from 12% to 4.5%, saving over 8 million RMB annually. For the industry as a whole, it will drive the transition toward high-end manufacturing. By 2028, the localization rate of high-end fastener molds in China is expected to rise from the current 35% to 60%, with the average mold lifespan increasing to 120,000 cycles, approaching international advanced levels.

The Secretary-General of the Zhejiang Fasteners Industry Association stated that formulating this national standard is a crucial step in addressing industry shortcomings and enhancing overall supply chain competitiveness, providing strong support for China's transformation from a "manufacturing giant" to a "manufacturing powerhouse" in the fastener sector.

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New National Fastener Mold Standard in Zhejiang Targets Prec

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