There are more than 15 different processes which are used for molding and converting plastic into variety of end products. Injection molding is a one of the most common methods of producing plastics workpieces. It is a method of forming or molding objects from powdered or granular types of thermoplastic materials. For any custom injection molding projects, injection mold and molding cost are critical factors for development team to decide whether to move forward with this method or not, so an accurate quotation is important for your decision, what information do you need to provide to get an accurate quotation for the injection mold supplier?
1. A CAD drawing or A physical sample
CAD drawing is the most intuitive information for your injection mold supplier to see whether it is a ready-to-go design and they quote based on the drawing. Besides, it is better to provide 3D drawing in step，x-t, igs etc. format that can be read by most of the 3D software. Sometimes, you may have only 2D drawing, which may not be enough to get an accurate quotation.
If you don’t have any drawing but a sample, please send the physical sample to the injection mold maker, they can get the information such as the part structure, dimensions, weight and so on that needed for quotation.
2. What’s the plastic material?
There are various types of plastic material and the cost of each type varies in a wide range, for big size injection molded plastic parts, material cost take a large part of the total cost; Some material may require specific grade of mold steel, for example PVC material and other resin with fire- retardant additive are corrosive and easily to get rusty in using over time, usually we use stainless steel such as S136 or 420 for the mold core/cavity to avoid rusty from happening.
If you have no idea what kind of resin are suitable for your products, a professional injection molder should be able to provide material guidance, in order to make right choice, you need to provide the injection molder as more information as possible, such as product application, functionality, strength, appearance requirements etc.
3. What’s the surface finish?
Surface finish in some case can also influence the mold steel grade as well as the cost, If you prefer high glossy finish part, a higher grade of steel is required. And the unit price of the part will be more expensive because of the high scrap rate, textured or decorative finish such as MT texture and YS texture also one of the considerations when we do cost calculation.
4. What color you prefer for the parts?
For low volume production, color won’t make a much differences on cost, but for high volume production, light color plastic parts production cost will be higher than dark color, as light color part is much easier to get contaminated in the processing so the scrap rate will be higher which means higher unit price cost.
5. What’s the demand quantity?
If the demand quantity is small number, a lower cost pre-hardened mold with less cavity number are recommended, But if it is for large volume production, higher molding productivity is the priority when customize mold solution.
At last, you may get 5 or 10 quotations for your project, a good willingness and professional injection molding supplier would go through these details or maybe be more with you before quotation; for you, knowing which one is the tailored made and accurate quotation is important.
