10 Factors that Determine Plastic Injection Molding Cost Estimation

The tooling cost will be more, if your requirement is for a complicated part. Since, intricate part designs require a complicated mold design, it is always advisable to keep your injection molded part designs as simple as you can. However, if your application requires convoluted pat design, then feel free to do so by consulting with your manufacturing partner.

Larger parts require more machining time. Moreover, fabricating larger parts require large molds as well, adding to the material costs. Hence, unless it is really required, do not opt for larger parts.

This is where you must lay utmost care. There are some resins that contain volatile or corrosive content, which require specialized treatments and manufacturing procedures. Moreover, maintenance cost of the mold also would be more when it comes to the manufacturing of plastic products from such resins. A wide range of resins are available that differ in terms of quality, color, compounding, grade, and additives. Always keep in mind that your expected overall production cost varies depending on the material you use for molding. Consult your manufacturing partner and choose the right budget-friendly material that suits your application.

To produce parts with tight tolerance level, manufacturers follow additional fabrication processes. This results in extra expenses in terms of tool maintenance, and labor charges, among several others.

The molding costs depend on the number of cavities in the mold. Limiting the number of cavities, and the other customization options such as placement of cores, ejectors, cooling lines, helps in lessening the tooling work. Hence, plan the design wisely to reduce the overall manufacturing costs.

To ensure the fastest cycle time, a tool needs uniform cooling throughout the cavity impression. Injection molding plastic parts manufacturers employ different cooling strategies to achieve uniform cooling. Speak to your manufacturer and decide on the effective cooling strategy that bring you substantial cost savings.

When designing molds, it is important that the manufacturers follow the best practices. Molds can be designed in myriad of ways; one may with lower residual costs, and other that is easier to set up and to start. However, whatever is the design, molds must be made that are less likely to fail or be rejected.

Get the most out of your mold; the mold must be created to produce several plastic components in one machine cycle. This not only helps save considerable amount of time, but also helps lower the overall production cost.

There are injection mold parts manufacturers who have onshore and offshore sources for molds. If your manufacturing partner procures molds for your production from overseas, then overall production cost would be more. Always keep in mind that, a well-designed mold won’t come cheaply.

After molding, several parts require special packaging, assembly or kitting. These secondary operations are one of the factors that influence the price of a mold and the price of parts.