Why you should find a high quality mould maker instead of a cheap one?
A mould is the basic equipment for all shaped components or finished products. Only after the mold is made firstly, the subsequent products will appear. Because of the existence of the mould, the product can be produced in large quantities, which makes the single consumer product price much cheaper. The cost of mold making is not as low as a single consumer product, it is a 'big' cost to be paid in the first place. But like buying other consumer goods, your different requirements for quality and details will have different price due to mould design concept, material cost and manufacturing process.
You may say that you will find the cheapest mould supplier to reduce the cost, but the low-priced mold may not bring you high profits, or maybe on the contrary, it could cause you the greater loss.
A good mold manufacturer must have good quality which can meet customers' requirements, reasonable price which is within customers' budget, good and fast communication during projects following, timely delivery date and last but not least, keep their words.
In this article, let's briefly talk about several factors that affect the mould price firstly, and then, let’s talk why high-quality moulds are the ‘cheapest’, and why it can reduce costs better for you.
After reading these, you will see more details.
1. Mold service life: If your product needs to be mass-produced, then you need high-quality, long-life steel, such as general soft material P20, 738H, the injection molding service life can be 300,000 ~ 500,000 shots. And hardened materials such as H13, 1.2344, 1.2343, 1.2767, etc., the life can reach to 800,000 ~ 1,000,000 shots. For very low volume production, Rapid prototyping tools will be ok, it normally needs material of Aluminum or very soft steel S50C. Steels with long molding life are definitely more expensive than those with short injection molding life. Moreover, different brands of steel will have differences in price and quality too.
2. The complexity of the mold and the choice of design concept: Obviously, the complexity of the mold will have a great impact on the cost of mold manufacturing. The more complex the mold is, the higher the price will be. Then, there is the design concept will affect mould cost. For example, what brand of mould components to use? how to use sliders & lifters? And how to use other critical accessories, such as hot runners, hydraulic cylinders, and so on. In addition, the precision of the mould determines what kind of equipments and what kind of processing technology is used to manufacture it, which will have a great impact on the cost of the mold too. Of course, A higher quality mold will make the production more stable and cost-saving, besides, the produced goods will be in a higher quality level too, this will builds your customer confidence and your reputation to them.
3. The above 2 points are the most important factors affecting the cost of the mold, but there are also other factors that will also affect the overall price. For example, the service and management level of the supplier, including but not limited to: the timely response of communication, the fast handling for emergency and the timely & complete after-sales service, etc.
1. Your high-volume production needs to be consistent and fast, so that the tooling cost can be amortized on each product. The more products are produced, the lower the cost on each product will be. Likewise, the faster the speed, the more products will be produced and thus the lower the price of individual products will be. But if the mold you buy is not of high quality, problems frequently happen and need to be repaired often, a lot of production time will be wasted. At the same time, the repair & maintenance cost will be high, which will cause a lot of unexpected secondary costs. More importantly, if there is problem of time to launch the goods to market because of the low quality mold, or delayed delivery to your customers, the losses might be huge.
2. For the same mold making project, if the basic materials, components and design are similar, the price from suppliers should not be too much different. However, if one of the price is very low, then you have to consider whether there is any invisible problem unknown. Usually, there are 4 reasons:
a). The cheap supplier didn't fully understand your requirements or did not quote according to your requirements.
b). There is possibility that he used fake materials or/and used other substitutes of low quality parts etc.
c). Some components require precision equipments to do machining, maybe they use lower-precision equipments to reduce processing cost.
d). Maybe they just want to get the order firstly, and then, add extra costs in other places, for example, when modifying the mold, reporting a very high modification cost. Or additional cost for mold trial, plastic materials, and sample delivery fees, etc. Then, in the production process, take all means to reduce costs. In this case, cheap suppliers bring you not only additional invisible cost for subsequent production, but also possible hidden costs due to service, quality, delivery and other problems.
I have a client and also a friend who has lived in China for many years and bought molds from many suppliers. He was the one who told me that there are no more expensive molds than 'cheap' ones. Because he had the very painful experience I mentioned above too. He said that Suntime Mould is a cost-effective mould manufacturing supplier, with reasonable price and high quality, and most importantly, first-class service level. They always can find people for any issues even if during important holidays. We not only meet their requirements, but also often exceed his expectations. His words are the best reward for me and for SUNTIME.
Writer: Selena Wong Updated date: 2023.03.01
Post time: Oct-15-2022
