The secrets of modern dice making

• Dice, this seemingly ordinary but indispensable polyhedron in the entertainment world, has a complex and exquisite production process behind. Today, we will delve into the industrial production process of modern dice.

First, mold injection molding process

(1) Material preparation

• High-quality engineering plastics, such as ABS plastic, are commonly used to make dice. Its hardness, toughness and stability ensure that the dice are durable. The raw materials are sent to the workshop in granular form, and should be dried before injection to remove water and prevent bubbles from affecting the quality of the dice. This is like preparing high-quality bricks for a building, which is the first step to ensuring quality.

(2) Injection molding process

• 1. ** Mold installation and debugging (with mold diagram) **
• Mold is the key to injection molding, and its design and manufacturing accuracy determine the quality of dice. Die injection molds are multi-part metal molds with precise internal cavities for shaping die shapes. Technicians install the mold in the injection molding machine, fine debugging, so that the precision of each part is very high, the cavity size tolerance can reach ±0.05mm, which is crucial to the dimensional accuracy of the die. Like a precise lock and key, a slight deviation will affect the effect.
• 2. ** Injection molding (flow chart of injection molding machine) **
• After the mold is ready, the dry plastic particles are injected into the cylinder of the injection molding machine, heated and melted to form a melt, and injected into the cavity by the screw. The injection pressure and speed are adjusted according to the characteristics of the plastic and the mold design, such as ABS plastic, the pressure is usually 80-120MPa, and the speed is 30-50mm /s. In the process, the pressure should be kept stable to ensure that the density of each side of the dice is uniform, and to avoid problems such as lack of material and flash.

3. ** Cooling release **

• After injection molding is completed, the mold cooling system works quickly to solidify the melt into shape. The cooling time is about 10-20 seconds depending on the size and thickness of the dice. After the die has cooled hard enough, the die is opened and the ejector mechanism pushes out the die. The surface of the new die is smooth, high precision, and multiple injection moulds can be produced at the same time, greatly improving efficiency.

(3) Quality, accuracy and cost characteristics

• 1. The best quality
• The quality of the injection die is stable. High cavity accuracy ensures dimensional consistency and flatness, high-quality plastic makes the dice wear-resistant, impact resistant, not easy to scratch and damage, can meet the needs of frequent use. For example, the common board game dice, after many throws can still maintain good condition.
• 2. ** Accuracy **
• The tolerance range of ±0.05mm ensures a uniform distribution of points, which ensures the fairness of the game in board games with high precision requirements, and the probability of occurrence on each side is close to the theoretical value.
• 3. ** Cost **
• Low cost in mass production. Although the early investment in mold design and manufacturing is large, mass production will greatly reduce the cost of a single die, and the injection molding automation is high, the efficiency is fast, and the labor cost is reduced.

(4) Environmental protection and sustainability

• The modern injection molding process has also improved in terms of environmental protection. Some plants use recycled plastic raw materials to reduce their environmental impact. At the same time, the energy consumption is reduced and the energy utilization efficiency is improved by optimizing the injection molding process parameters.

5. Future trends

• In the future, it is possible to develop more precise mold design and improve the accuracy of dice. At the same time, the development of new environmentally friendly plastics to meet the needs of sustainable development may also use the combination of 3D printing and injection molding technology to achieve more complex dice design.

Two, stamping process

• (A) Materials and mold preparation
• Stamping is often used in metal dice production, materials such as stainless steel, aluminum alloy sheet. These metals are strong and have a good texture. The sheet is cut to the right size and sent to the press shop. The stamping die is composed of an upper and lower die, which has a bulge and depression corresponding to the shape and number of the die, and its manufacturing precision is extremely high, affecting the shape and number of the die.

(2) Stamping steps (with stamping process diagram)

• 1. ** First stamping **
• The metal plate is placed on the punching machine table, under huge pressure (hundreds of tons to thousands of tons), the upper die is pressed down, and the plate is stamped into the rough shape of the dice. The process requires precise control of pressure and stroke to prevent sheet cracking or excessive deformation.
• 2. ** Point stamping **
• After the basic shape of the die is formed, a small stamping die is used to press points on each side. This process requires high precision, point clarity and depth affect the use experience, point depth is generally 0.2-0.5mm.

3. ** Post-processing **

• The stamped die may have burrs or uneven edges that need to be polished and polished. With sandpaper grinding, mechanical polishing, etc., so that the surface is smooth, the edge is rounded, improve the appearance quality and comfort.

(3) Quality, accuracy and cost characteristics

• 1. The best quality

• Stamped metal dice are strong and durable. The metal material itself has high strength, after stamping and post-processing, the surface hardness is high, wear-resistant, can withstand greater external impact, high-grade appearance, suitable for high-quality games or collections. For example, some limited edition metal dice are loved by collectors.
• 2. ** Accuracy **
• The high precision of the stamping die makes the dice shape and point accuracy high, the shape tolerance is within ±0.03mm, the point position and depth error is very small, and it is more accurate in professional gambling or competitive games.
• 3. ** Cost **
• The cost of stamping is higher, because of the high cost of metal materials and mold manufacturing, large equipment investment, and lower production efficiency than the injection molding process. But for high-end or custom dice, can meet the quality and accuracy requirements, price is not the main consideration.

(4) Environmental protection and sustainability

• Metal materials can be recycled, and some stamping plants will establish metal waste recycling systems to reduce resource waste. At the same time, improve the stamping process and reduce energy consumption, such as the use of energy-saving stamping equipment.

5. Future trends

• In the future, the stamping process may introduce an intelligent monitoring system to monitor the stamping process in real time and ensure quality. It is also possible to develop new metal materials to improve dice performance while reducing costs and improving production efficiency.

Three, carving technology

(1) Material selection and design

• The carving process is used for high-end personalized dice, and the materials are precious wood, gems, bones and so on. Such as rosewood, sandalwood without beautiful texture and unique aroma. Before carving, design the dice size and counting style according to the shape and size of the material, and consider the color distribution and internal defects of the gem dice to show its beauty.

(2) Engraving process (with engraving step diagram)

• 1. ** Rough carving **

• Carvers use electric saws, files and other tools to rough the material into dice shapes. It takes a lot of experience and skill to cut with the grain of the wood to prevent cracking, to ensure that the material is not wasted and close to the final shape.

• 2. ** Fine engraving points and details **

• After rough carving, fine tools such as miniature carving knives are used to carve points and details. Engraver carefully carved according to the design requirements, to ensure that the points are beautiful, smooth lines, special pattern dice will also add more details, such as engraving patterns, Mosaic materials. Gemstone dice may use ultrasonic engraving machines to achieve fine results.

• 3. ** Grinding and polishing **

• After the carving is completed, the dice are polished many times to show the glossy texture of the material. Wood dice are polished with different mesh sandpaper from low to high mesh to smooth the surface and highlight the texture, while gem dice are polished with professional equipment and polishing powder to make their luster bright.

(3) Quality, accuracy and cost characteristics

• 1. The best quality
• Carving dice is a level of art, wood warm, bright gems, bones simple, high quality, use function and collection value, each is a unique handmade art.
• 2. ** Accuracy **
• Although the dimensional accuracy is not as good as the first two processes, the artistic expression and detail accuracy are unique. Engraver can precisely control the number of points and pattern position, error is very small, has a high artistic value.
• 3. ** Cost **
• The cost is high, because the material cost is high and the manual carving is time-consuming and laborious, the labor value of the engraver is high. So carved dice are mostly used in the high-end market or collection field.

(4) Environmental protection and sustainability

• For wood materials, use wood from legal sources to avoid illegal logging. Some sculptors also use recycled wood or scraps. For gemstone materials, promote the use of certified sustainable source gemstones to reduce environmental damage.

5. Future trends

• In the future, the engraving process may be combined with digital design, first designing patterns through computers, and then carving precision with engraving equipment. At the same time, more attention will be paid to the use of environmentally friendly materials and the inheritance of traditional carving skills.

Through the introduction of these processes, we see their characteristics and differences in quality, accuracy, cost, environmental protection and so on. They complement each other to meet the market's demand for different dice, from ordinary entertainment to precious collections, each with its own unique value.