Practical experience of a purchasing specialist in finding overseas injection mold manufacturers

• Practical experience of a purchasing specialist in finding overseas injection mold manufacturers
  • Is the information you provided about the injection mold project complete, and are the designs changing?
  • Do you need production molds or prototyping tools?
  • Is the quantity of products you need to produce determined?
  • Factors affecting injection molding and mold pricing
  • Fluctuations in material prices can also affect the pricing of injection molds.
  • Mold quotes typically vary depending on changes in product design.
  • Do you just want to buy the mold, or do you also want it to be formed?
  • Why choose a Chinese company instead of an American one?
  • How do Chinese injection mold manufacturers quote prices, and is their information security guaranteed?
  • If you find injection mold costs too high, you can consider reaction injection molding and vacuum forming.
  • For those looking to produce molds or products at low cost, 3D printing is an option.
  • Summarize

Are you researching and needing to purchase and develop new injection molds? But you can’t seem to find a high-quality injection mold manufacturer with reasonable prices. When you start looking for manufacturer quotes, isn’t the gap between the mold quotes for the main components you need enormous ? For example:

US company $5,000

Mexican company $5,000

Vietnamese company $7,000

Chinese company $6,000

Chinese company $23,000

…

You might only need to injection mold two items. But sometimes you need to change the dimensions, and then the quote you receive becomes nearly $100,000. At this point, do you feel like you must have done something wrong? What if you already have a long-term injection mold manufacturer, but they’re no longer responding to you or providing a quote for your project?

If this resonates with you as a purchasing agent, today we’ll address your questions one by one.

Is the information you provided about the injection mold project complete, and are the designs changing?

If the documents you provide to the mold manufacturer lack a lot of information, you will receive a rough quote, not a definitive one. Many manufacturers will give you a rough price based on your information and their accumulated experience, but this price will often exceed your expectations because there are many uncertainties and manufacturing risks involved, such as product surface requirements and dimensional changes.

If you need a definitive quote, it depends on the product quantity, surface texture requirements, mold size, desired number of cavities, and the stringency of your part’s tolerance requirements. Additionally, you need to provide the manufacturer with complete and definitive documentation, clearly specifying product dimensions, surface texture, tolerances, etc., without making significant changes, especially altering the original product structure. In principle, if the design changes, you should obtain a new quote from the supplier. Only in this way can you obtain a definitive injection mold quote.

Do you need production molds or prototyping tools?

If you want to manufacture a plastic part with a diameter of 16 inches, that’s not something a small product or tool can produce. If a manufacturer quotes you $3,000 to $6,000, without even comparing it to other manufacturers, your intuition tells you that the price is unrealistic. This is even if it’s a single-cavity mold for ABS material. If your production volume increases and you want a four-cavity mold, although the EAV is higher, the material changes to something like fiberglass-filled material. In this case, because of the different materials used, the mold price and product manufacturing cost will usually be much higher.

However, if you only need a prototype tool for producing a few hundred parts, a price range of $3,000 to $6,000 is more reasonable. But if you want to increase production to 12,000 parts per year, you’ll need to consider a proper mold. A single-cavity mold should also be able to handle the relevant production volume, but this depends on where you plan to produce and whether you have 100% capacity on a single machine; it’s a matter of specific circumstances.

Finally, steel costs are a major driver of tooling costs, but design and complexity also add significant costs. Have there been any design changes? Have sliders and pins been added? Have tolerances changed? If you need a slightly complex product with high tolerance requirements, $100,000 does seem unusually high; it’s usually between $20,000 and $50,000, depending on the actual size and complexity of the product and the difficulty of manufacturing. If a manufacturer quotes you $5,000, that’s extreme and simply impossible to achieve final mold manufacturing.

Is the quantity of products you need to produce determined?

As a professional with many years of experience in the injection molding industry, I know that mold quotes are typically based on size. If a manufacturer quotes you $5,000 for your project, it’s very likely a mold for a prototype tool.

Professional injection mold manufacturers will adjust the mold size based on your annual production volume to meet their needs. If you confidently tell them that your annual production volume is 1 million units and that the product’s geometry is difficult to manufacture, requiring a complex mold, then the supplier’s quote will be very high.

Although I don’t know what stage you’re at right now, if you need support in plastics and injection molds, we can contact you further at [email protected].

Next, I will explain the different production quantity levels of molds. Typically, the rating of an injection molding tool is its guaranteed lifespan. When you tell the manufacturer you need 1 million units (advice: when requesting a mold quote, it’s best to specify the quantity based on your actual needs), they will quote a mold with a rated lifespan of one million cycles based on your requirements.

This type of mold means it can typically open and close a million times. If you need a million parts a year, the manufacturer might quote you an 8-cavity (part) or even larger tooling to easily meet your needs.

Additionally, if you need a medium-volume part, the standard cost for reference might be between $20,000 and $50,000, depending on the complexity of the product. Factors I would consider here include things like surface texture requirements and whether the design incorporates geometric shapes. This will vary depending on the complexity of the part and the “additional features” required for the tooling.

Finally, factories won’t just want to run your molds on their machines; they’ll also want to run your production and then move on to the next one.

Factors affecting injection molding and mold pricing

Of course, the price of injection molding depends heavily on numerous factors, including:

How many parts does the product need?

What is surface treatment?

What are the production operations and lifespan of each batch?

How complex is the design?

Who designs the 3D files (preparing the files is expensive)?

If a mold design fails due to the mold manufacturer’s fault, who will bear the risk?

How many parts do you plan to produce with these molds? Generally, if a mold can withstand one million injection cycles, manufacturers can easily quote hundreds of thousands of dollars for it. If your production volume is much lower, you might consider 3D printing your parts, or contacting a 3D printing expert to print your molds using tool steel or similar materials. For example, for 300g ABS products with only a few hundred units, the quote for injection molds is typically around $5,000.

Fluctuations in material prices can also affect the pricing of injection molds.

Why are our mold manufacturers raising prices, but not by much? Have you ever wondered this? This is largely related to increased steel tariffs. Global manufacturing and shipping are currently facing challenges that are driving up prices worldwide. Specifically, the plastics industry is currently facing some raw material supply chain issues, both in the US and abroad.

If you’re currently small but your sales have been soaring over the past three months, around 700-1000 units per month, then accept this price increase, as supply chain stability is what you need most at this point.

Additionally, I have this experience; China’s NRE (Non-Release Equipment) is probably only 60% of that in the US, and the price per part is 10% of that. If a manufacturer casually quotes you $200,000 for a project, that’s outrageous unless you’re producing steel molds for a million injection cycles. Alternatively, using a complete manufacturing process and logistics system might be helpful, depending on the scale of the project.

Mold quotes typically vary depending on changes in product design.

You might think my design hasn’t changed, just gotten bigger. We even removed the old screw posts and replaced them with snap-fit connections to save costs, so why is the mold price still so high?

I think you need to understand that larger sizes mean higher prices. Adding to this, the design itself might be difficult to mold. Or perhaps the quote you received previously was for a single mold, while the new quote is for a larger mold. Remember, the more slots on each mold, the lower your unit cost will be after paying the initial mold fee.

Do you just want to buy the mold, or do you also want it to be formed?

When you request a quote from a manufacturer for your mold project, please provide as much information as possible: 3D drawings, 2D drawings with tolerances, materials, and the type of machine you intend to use. This will allow the supplier to provide a more detailed quote and more realistic figures. If your information is vague and the design changes frequently, the supplier may try to mitigate risk by raising the price, as they are unsure what additional requirements might be added. If you require a third-party opinion, send me your information, and I can help you obtain a quote.

Why choose a Chinese company instead of an American one?

If the product is sensitive, you can have the manufacturer sign a non-disclosure agreement. We used a plastic injection molding and mold manufacturing company we found on Google. The mold cost less than $2,000, while an American tool company quoted $30,000, and a company with injection molding machines in the US and mold manufacturing in China quoted $10,000. Even with a 25% tariff, the cost was only 20% of the American quotes. Based on my (limited) experience, most American manufacturers either focus on ultra-high quality and expensive niche markets or on extremely high volume production (millions of units per year). Of course, there are exceptions.

How do Chinese injection mold manufacturers quote prices, and is their information security guaranteed?

Recently, one of our company’s clients gave us the following feedback:

I purchased some molds from a US manufacturer for $29,000. There are five separate parts, and extensive testing was conducted to ensure accuracy. My Chinese manufacturer typically charges me between $3,000 and $15,000, depending on the part size. These are simpler parts, and I trust shipping them overseas. The US-made parts contain all my intellectual property, and at this point, I don’t feel entirely comfortable shipping them overseas. However, as our collaboration progresses, and given the confidentiality agreements you can sign, I feel it’s feasible to provide the molds needed for new projects, including manufacturing the products.

Additionally, I purchased a mold for an 8 x 11 inch part from you last year for approximately $12,000. It was of moderate complexity, with some sliders and motion. The 16-inch part was quoted by you for $15,000-$25,000, but a US manufacturer quoted me over $40,000. Therefore, I’m considering moving this project to China for production.

The main issue is the current tariffs. If the additional Chinese tariffs are not lifted, it will increase my shipping costs. I haven’t decided yet.

If you find injection mold costs too high, you can consider reaction injection molding and vacuum forming.

I’m an engineer at Elimold. If you do more research and find that the mold costs are still too high, you can consider using different manufacturing processes or a completely different design.

For example, you could consider reaction injection molding, which would almost certainly manufacture your part. The mold could be made of aluminum because of the lower injection pressure, meaning the mold itself would be much cheaper, but the part cost might be slightly higher. Depending on how critical the size and surface finish are, you could also consider vacuum forming. Alternatively, you could redesign it so the surface is simply a flat shape cut from a plastic sheet by a CNC router. This way, you only need to mold the outer ring.

For those looking to produce molds or products at low cost, 3D printing is an option.

If you want to manufacture products or molds at a very low cost, try talking to a 3D printing expert. Creating injection molds with 3D printing is nothing new. Alternatively, you could use CNC machining to machine aluminum alloys (normal injection molds often go through this step; CNC machining can create simple molds rather than production molds). Our company does a lot of 3D modeling; if you can model your parts, you can make a mold for them. However, both methods have limitations: your product design cannot be too complex. If it’s too complex, neither method will meet your needs.

Summarize

The above is a true account of my experience finding overseas injection mold manufacturers. This information can serve as a reference for whatever type of mold you need, and can help you prepare the necessary documents and address any potential issues in advance. If you currently need a professional injection mold manufacturer to help you start making molds, please contact Elimold and send your project documents to [email protected].