Whether you're a private individual running a startup or a large industry dependent on OEM plastic injection-molded tools, you need to make sure that you're partnering with the right molding company in China. There are certain questions to ask before buying a mold in China that can help you identify if you're collaborating with the right company.
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One thing you should prioritize is that you should be able to choose a company that can meet a number of your requirements. Not only will they help in providing you a mold that achieves tight tolerances, but they can also bring you the best outcomes when it comes to operational efficiency, practicality, and high-volume needs.
With all of these in mind, you have to know what you're looking for in a plastic injection company. Before buying a mold, understand if that company is capable of meeting your production requirements, has the right machinery to perform the job, provides a range of prototyping services, and the like. Continue reading to learn more.
The first question you should ask before you choose a company that can supply you with an injection mold is if they have the capabilities to meet your production volume requirements.
Of course, you'll get different answers depending on the industry you belong to. If your business is focused on the distribution of consumer goods, such as beverages or packed cosmetics, you need a reliable mold manufacturer that can perform production levels that reach a billion metric tons or more, each year.
Alternatively, if your business is involved in the manufacture of larger equipment, such as automotive parts or heavy machinery, see to it that your mold-maker in China can consistently dedicate their efforts to producing high-quality molds of these products.
When you have already conceptualized your mold, you'll likely have an idea of the dimensions of each part and component. As much as possible, when you have your idea actualized into a plastic injection-molded product, you want the final outcome to be as close to the prototype, or the concept, as possible.
To make sure that you buy a mold that has all of these standards, ask your molding company if they can achieve tight tolerances in their manufacturing processes. Typical injection molding companies usually set a threshold of Computer Numerical Control (CNC) tolerance of +/' 0.005 inches. Likewise, they should also be able to accommodate tighter tolerances, as specified by your molding requirements.
The quality and type of equipment that your chosen mold manufacturer has, are just as important as their experience in the industry. As such, you have to choose a company that uses different types of equipment at varying capacities.
One of the factors affecting the size of injection molded parts is the platen size. Ask if your company's machines can support different mold thicknesses, fast injection molding rate, resin variety, and heavy plastic weight.
To know the best machines available for your mold needs, choose a company that houses multiple units of equipment. For example, they may have a single unit for their -TON equipment, but for smaller molds, their facility may also house 8 units of a 150-TON machine, 6 units of a 90-TON machine, and the like.
Years of experience and professionalism are two other things to look for in your mold supplier. As much as possible, you'll want to choose a company that has more than a decade of experience behind them. They should have adequate knowledge not just when it comes to injection molding, but also in prototyping and manufacturing of different products. Every tool and equipment used in their production processes should be constantly maintained, updated for new developments, and quality-assured to come up with high-grade injection mold products.
If you're conceptualizing the next big plastic product in the market, you want to make sure that it functions according to your intentions. This is why many mold-making companies also invest in rapid prototyping, wherein the customer will get a concrete mold of the product, make refinements or modify it to correct any defects.
Ask if your mold manufacturer also conducts rapid prototyping for their injection mold processes. Prototyping is a low-cost and practical alternative compared to tool-making because the materials are relatively available. You can also request your manufacturer to have a similar end-product reverse-engineered to see what you can learn from your competitors in improving your mold design.
Although injection molding is a simple process, the lead time may vary on the type of mold. If your business values efficiency, especially in the production of multiple molds in a single-shot, then you need to ask your mold maker if their machines have support for high-cavitation molds.
High-cavitation molds are ideal if you belong to healthcare, biopharmaceutical, food & beverage, or any industry that relies on high-precision production of multiple molds all at once. Ensure that your mold maker can guarantee quality even in single-shot moldings.
In this guide, we've outlined six questions to ask before buying a mold in China. You have to find out if your mold manufacturer can supply you with high-quality molds at a short turnaround time.
More than just that, they should be implementing all the latest equipment and technology to achieve high-precision products, no matter for low-cavity or high-cavity molds. Finally, with an available prototyping service, your molding company in China can guarantee that the product you'll end up with is suitable to be distributed to the wider market and end-users.
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Many foreign injection mold buyers faced buying problems in China, different business culture and language make things complicated and sometime risky. This article will provide a basic guide for you to understand and identify the Chinese injection mold companies. Especially for the one who just start to deal with Chinese mold makers.
Mold Price
When you are a foreign buyer and get an offer from a Chinese injection mold company, you should not just care about the mold price but also require other information.
What is the mold size designed?
Adequate mold base size provides the necessary strength and stability of injection molding performance, try to lower down the injection mold price by inadequate mold size endanger mold quality.
What is the mold steel used?
There are various mold steels out there, their performance has very many differences, the difference also reflected in unit price. P20 pre-harden steel only cost 20RMB/kg,meanwhile harden steel 1. up to 80RMB/kg from LKM.
How many shorts are the molding cycle guaranteed?
Ensure that you get a commitment to guarantee that the injection mold can full fill your production demands.
What is the accessory standard?
The designed mold and accessory should apply to the standard where the mold run injection molding to ease the mold maintenance. Standard for Europe is HASCO, North America is DME.
What's the payment term?
Generally payment term accepted by Chinese mold factories are 40% with PO, 30% with T1 sample submit, 30% before mold shipping. As a custom made product, mold payment term is not that adorable than other products, a long term relationship would make the payment term flexible by negotiation.
Mold design
How long it will take to do mold design?
Depends on the complexity of the part/mold structure, it will normally take 2-3 days for 2d layout,3-5 days for 3D detailed design.
Does the mold design included in the offer?
The design data is supposed to be provided and authorized by the buyer, no extra charge for design or design modification.
Management
How to do mold making management?
As the buyer is far way from where the Chinese mold factory locate, a tight and well planned schedule are supposed be submitted and a weekly tracking report graphically provided by the injection mold maker.
How to do communication?
A project manger will be assigned to report and communicated with mold buyers. Mostly, a Chinese mold manufacturer who is experienced with mold export business would usually have project managers employed with mold making experiences and English ability.
Mold making
How long it will take to make the mold?
Depends on the mold size complexity, small size /easy structure molds take around 20-30 days, complex and large size molds take 35-50 days.
How to ensure the genuine steel used?
The steel used by Chinese mold suppliers usually are purchased from LKM, LKM is the biggest mold base/mold steel supplier in Asia, steel and heat treatment certificates are available.
Mold test and sample submit
Who is responsible for the mold test plastic resin?
Material that is easy to get at local should be prepared by the injection mold supplier, some of the special resin that can not be purchased in China should be provided by the buyers.
What will be provided along with samples?
For better evaluation on the mold condition, along with the samples, the gate/runner, injection molding parameter report, molded part dimension report should be provided.
Who is responsible for the sample delivery cost?
Sample delivery generally is responsible by the injection mold manufacturer; this cost would drive the plastic mold maker try to make the injection mold project success as quickly as possible.
Delivery
Who is responsible for the mold delivery?
Base on the negotiation in the quotation, many delivery term conditions are available, FOB, CIF, DDU.
How long it will take to do delivery?
Depends on the delivery way, delivery could be made by air shipping, sea shipping, it takes 1 week by air shipping, 20-25 days by sea.
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