An overseas piece price 35% below domestic usually lands 5% to 20% below domestic once you add freight, duty, customs fees, inventory carrying cost, quality inspection, and travel. On a 42-gram plastic part, a $0.38 quote from Asia against $0.62 domestic becomes $0.76...
Paying a mold fee does not give you the mold. Title passes only if a written agreement says it does. Without that language, the molder holds the physical tool, often claims ownership of the tool design, and in several manufacturing states can assert a statutory lien...
Resin sets 15% to 40% of a molded part’s piece price, and it sets nearly all of the failure modes. Polypropylene costs $0.75 to $1.15 a pound and shrinks 1.3% to 2.5%. Polycarbonate costs $2.00 to $3.10 and shrinks 0.5% to 0.7%. That shrink difference is why the...
Between 500 and 10,000 units, six manufacturing paths compete: powder-bed 3D printing, urethane casting, CNC machining, pressure-formed thermoforming, aluminum bridge tooling, and low-cavitation soft steel tooling. Bridge tooling wins most of the time. A $7,000...
A molder needs seven things to quote your part: a 3D solid model in STEP format, a 2D drawing with tolerances called out, a resin specification, estimated annual volume, order quantity, a finish and color spec, and a packaging requirement. Send all seven and you get a...
Injection mold tooling runs $3,000 for a single-cavity aluminum prototype tool, $12,000 to $60,000 for a production steel tool on a moderate consumer part, and $80,000 to $200,000 for a high-cavitation tool with hot runners and multiple side actions. The spread comes...
