How to find a good plastic injection mould making supplier in China?
Many moulds importers may have a difficult problem of how to find a good mould making supplier in China, here are some thoughts I would like to share based on my working experience with global customers these years.
Firstly, learn if a mould manufacturer good enough or not before placing orders by contacting them for a quote after investigation of company's background in Google. In this way, you can check their communication level including response time and patience. Then, check the price and if it is professional enough with all detailed informations such as steel, cavities, injection system, ejection system, potential problem for mold release and so on. Meanwhile, you also can ask for a DFM to see if their technical idea is suitable for you.
Secondly, if they make you feel safe and comfortable, keep checking with a small trial order, you will see more about their communication skill, technical level, manufacturing management, trouble shoot ability and their related working experience.
A good mould maker is not only good for expending your market but also can be a future partner to solve your problems with faster time and lower cost.
Firstly, if you can travel to audit the factory, it would be great. You can see the equipments and their products by your own eyes.
And you can have more time to talk with more people there to know deeper about their communication and technical knowledge.
However, not every body like to travel far away, especially under condition of Covid pandemic.
In this case, you need to check carefully by emails/phones about their daily communication response timely or not; whether they can answer your questions all-sided or always need you to ask by more emails.
And you also can check if their price is good and stable by asking for 5~8 quotes. Secondly, you can choose one small possible project and require a free DFM to check their basic design skill. And, last but not least, you need to check if your potential suppliers keep their words.
For example, they said that they would reply you the quotation within 48 hours, but they didn’t do it timely and didn’t notice you the reason in advance, then, I think they might not be a on-time delivery supplier too.
In Suntime Mould, we have over 10 years experience working for global customers and some of them expanded more and more market after working with us. Our timely service and response makes them feel safety for any projects, we are not the best supplier, but our quality is exactly good enough for them, and most importantly, we keep our words and never find excuses when problems come. Although more than 98% are very small issues among problems which hardly happened, we took the responsibility accordingly after checking and gave them urgent and permanent solutions.
After you place a small trail order to your new mold making supplier, you have more ways to inspect them.
Firstly, before mould manufacturing, mould design is a very important and critical start.
During the discussion and communication, you can check their experience and mould building skills.
Secondly, during mould manufacturing, you can check if they have timely response of your questions and requirements.
Whether the weekly report was sent to you timely and clearly and whether the sales and engineers can work closely to make your project go smoothly.
Thirdly, when T1 date comes, you can check if they kept their words and did the mould trial on time. Normally, after mould trial, the supplier will provide a trial report with mould & samples photos and letting you know the issues happened and their suggestion or solution of corrections. 1~3 days later, the samples inspection report must be provided to let you check the dimension.
After your approval, the T1 samples will be sent to you for checking by express. During this process, you will see their T1 ability. Most of Suntime’s customers are very happy with our T1 samples.
Fourthly, most of moulds can’t be perfect when do T1, corrections or modifications is unavoidable. During the corrections or modifications, you can check suppliers’ communication skill and response time.
Meanwhile, you can see how fast the supplier can finish the modifications and how much cost there will be for the modification caused by your parts changes. Some companies have long modification lead time and very high modification cost.
After the first small order, you will know the modification lead time and cost level of this supplier.
Finally, your IP is very very important. Some companies like to use new moulds or parts photos to do promotion in internet. Unless you agreed, I don’t think it is suitable to show the VERY NEW moulds with inserts and parts photos.
In Suntime team, we are not allowed to show new moulds with cavity&core inserts or new parts, keeping your new products confidential is our responsibility.
For a mould making project, all things mentioned above are important. Suppliers and customers are business partners & friends, we are always pursuing win-win status, customers’ success is suppliers’ success!
Writer: Selena Wong / Updated: 2023-02-10
Post time: Oct-10-2022
