Capital has always flowed to wherever the highest interests, so does the mold manufacturing business. Labor cost in one of the determine factor to force the business owners to source offshore mold shops mostly in China.
How much you can save?
The mold making costs are mainly determined by lobar cost and raw material cost, mold shop owners in China have huge advantages on both. Price of same quality mold Steel in china is only 70% in USA, Paying 800 USD/ month can hire a skilful mold maker in China, this is impossible in western countries. Generally, molds made in China can save you 30-50% cost.
How good is the quality?
China has experienced, well-educated engineers who can generate and modify your parts and tooling drawings. Using ProEngineer and UG, the engineers can work from product samples, concepts, to create 2D/3D engineering drawings. Skilful mold makers and most advanced machines equipped can guarantee the quality is as good as anywhere else.
Also I believe there are different grades in every business and in every country, mold companies in China have grades too, some of them are bad quality, bad management, but there are few of them, because this kind of mold shop will not last long and survive in competition.
The quality of China molds has not ever disappointed the overseas mold buyers. That is why the China mold making industry grow so fast.
How fast can they deliver?
Like low prices, lead-time is one of the factors to consider, in recent years, China mold making shop have earned a reputation for quick delivery. Mold lead-time is combined with two biggest parts – design and construction. Mold design usually take 3-5 days by using the CAD, mold construction takes 4-5 weeks if the mold size is small and the part is low complexity, complex and big size mold could take 10-20 weeks. Delivery by air only takes 3-5 days but the cost is high (around 4usd/kg currently). Cost of shipping by sea is very low but it takes around 3 week to arrive, mold buyers can decide which way to go base on actual situation.
