Myths for Purchasing Injection Molds and Injection Molded Parts

This information comes directly from the article “7 Myths on PurchasingInjection Molded Parts and Injection Molds” written by Bill Tobin.

Many companies think the purchasing of a mold is the tooling necessary to produce a part.  While correct there are some considerations that need to be made before your purchase.

Myth #1 Always buy the most economical mold.  Economical does not necessarily mean the lowest purchase price.  (Even if that’s the only budget you’re concerned with.)  If you take the lifetime volume of the part multiplied by the part price, add in the tool cost plus 15% for maintenance, then divide by the total lifetime volume you’d get the overall cost of that part.  As a second calculation, repeat this using the prices from several quotes.  While a mold will probably be between 15-25% of all the money spent on this project, the impact the “high” bidder or the “low” bidder on the total project is minimal.  Don’t waste your tooling dollars but consider the overall cost of a mold before placing the job.

The folks you know can probably deliver the best tool because they know you.  Going to someone you’ve never done business with or can’t give you a good feeling about being a good match is going to be an expensive education.    Calculate the total cost of the mold – even though travel is “Not my budget”, placing a job in Singapore is usually an invitation for a Road Trip for everyone with Manager on his business card.   Keep in mind how many days/person will be spent on following up etc.  Also remember the money spent on trips is coming from the company profits regardless how the bookies try to hide it somewhere else.   Once the mold is released from the mold maker and sent to the molder, who will do the tweaking to get the mold on-line?  Who will do the maintenance if they are not the original builder?  Who controls the designs or CAD/CAM drawings so that replacement parts can be manufactured?