What is the injection mold cost?
First of all, you pay the cost to design and make an injection mold. The injection mold is able to run well to mass produce your plastic parts, but this is not enough for a smart injection mold buyer. If you are the one who wants to buy plastic injection molds from China, you might be interested to have a general idea of what the total cost is if you decide to buy from a China injection mold factory. The total cost is a combination of the cost of mold design, material, machining, surface treatment, sampling. If you do injection molding production somewhere else, shipping cost and custom duty may exist.
Ⅰ.Injection mold design cost
Estimated at 10% of the injection mold cost. For a simple part/mold, it takes about 1-2 days for DFM and 2-3 days for 3D mold design. Design for some complex and big-size injection molds could take weeks to complete. Mold design is vital to an injection mold. The design can influence the actual total cost of an injection mold manufacturing in many ways. A great mold designer knows how to save cost and maintain the quality to meet demands accurately.
Ⅱ. Material cost
Material takes up 20-30% of the total injection mold cost. It can be broken up into several catalogues.
- Mold steel: For a big-size mold, this part can be major and it could determine how many cycles the mold can stand before you have to stop production and repair the mold. The quality of the same steel type (not exactly the same) from different resources varies. I would not suggest you compromise on steel quality when it comes to mold cost optimization. So if you get an absolutely cheap quote, you’d better look into what resources they will be using.
Here is the resource ACO MOLD use frequently:
Or go to LKM website: www.lkm.com.cn
- Mold base: This is a low-risk part to choose because mold base steel is usually low grade steel. But for the mold factory, it must choose a qualified mold base supplier that is low cost, has fast delivery, and has low machining errors.
- Mold accessories/components： Such as ejector pins, locks, springs, cooling line connectors, cycle counters, safely switch etc.
- EDM electrode: Depends on the mold complexity, a simple structure mold may have no requirement of EDM process at all, but a complex design with many thin and deep recess in the mold means a lot of EDM processing, and graphite electrode or copper electrode
- Plastic resins: To verify a new mold, there usually will be 2-3 rounds of sampling. It depends on the plastic part weight and the required sampling quantity. The mold factory must prepare a certain amount of specified plastic resin material in advance.
Ⅲ. Machining cost
Machining cost makes up 20-30% of the total injection mold cost. This is a big part of an injection mold factory’s competitiveness. Major machining processes include CNC turning, EDM, wire cut, milling, grinding, drilling, etc. Many factors influence the machining cost. The truth is it’s not easy to maintain low cost while maintaining high quality. High quality means, besides excellent operation, continuous investments in machineries and well-trained employees, which are all costly.
Ⅳ. Surface treatment
Normal surface treatment such as polish to SPI-SPE B/C standard and standardized EDM texture won’t cost much. But mirror polish or special texture can be costly depending on specific demands.
Ⅴ. Sampling cost
It takes 3-5% of the total mold cost. Usually, it takes 2-3 rounds of sampling for a new injection mold. This cost is highly related to mold design, machining, and assembly fitting that happens in the last stage. So a good mold factory has the capability to minimize the times of sampling and the cost that comes with it.
Ⅵ. Shipping cost
If you look to do injection mold at one place and molding production at another, then you must consider the shipping cost and custom duty when crossing the border.
- Air shipping: 6-8 USD per KG. We propose to go for Express delivery for goods less than 300KG. Heavier than that, air freight is lower cost.
- Sea freight: Starts at an estimated 700 USD. It’s a good choice for high-volume goods.
- Train freight: Starts at an estimated 600 USD. It’s faster than sea freight but sometimes it is unstable.
The above is based on door-to-door service. We propose to use one shipping agent to handle all instead of 2 or more for one shipment.
Ⅶ. Duty
Different places have different tax policies. I am not quite sure about this part, l think a local shipping agent can give you some professional advice.
