How to Reduce Your Injection Mold Cost? - - ZetarMold

There are several ways to reduce the cost of an injection mold. First, you should consider the size of the mold base.

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If the base is too large, your mold cost will increase. A more efficient approach is to design the mold with a core cavity.

Other cost-reducing options include adding cooling lines to the mold. These channels allow injected materials to solidify more quickly. Cooling lines, however, add a variable cost to the mold.

Sliding shutoffs

Sliding shutoffs are a great way to reduce your injection mold cost. They are a set of components that are machined into one side of the mold and extend into the other half.

This allows for a clean transition between one half of the mold and the next without using expensive inserts, side actions, or bumpoffs.

Sliding shutoffs can also create hook-and-clip mechanisms. They are often used to link two mold halves together. They are also an alternative to side-action cams, which are typically bolted to a molded pocket. They have the added benefit of being simpler to build.

Mold cost is the biggest cost driver for injection molding. Also known as tooling cost, the cost of designing and building a mold depends on several factors, including the volume of production needed, the complexity of the design, and material and process used to create the mold.

These factors all contribute to the overall cost of your injection mold. Injection mold cost increases with the number of parts you’re making. As the part becomes more complex, the mold has to be designed specifically for that part. Each part requires a different mold size and is unique to the others. Home-made 3-D prints, low-volume molds, and single cavity molds are all examples of simple mold designs.

Pass-through cores

The design of an injection mold has a number of variables to consider. For instance, the parting line of the mold – the line where the two halves join – must be determined.

In some applications, this is an obvious decision, but in other cases, the parting line may not be obvious. In these cases, it is important to determine which direction the line of draw will travel when the mold opens.

A quality injection mold is an investment, and a well-made mold can reduce your total costs. However, the investment must be amortized over the life of the project.

To do this, your design team must determine the best mold solution for your requirements.

For example, tight tolerances and higher cavity numbers will increase your manufacturing efficiency, while larger molds will have longer production lifespans and require less maintenance.

The mold base size and the number of side cores also play a role in choosing a process. In general, a deep mold base is more efficient than one with ribbed surfaces. The use of pass-cores allows you to minimize the mold cost and improve accuracy.

Another factor that can reduce your mold cost is the type of resin used. Resins come in a variety of materials and properties, and it is important to choose the best one for your project.

A high-quality resin must be chemically and environmental-resistant and firm. Also, the resin should be compatible with the part’s design. If you are not certain about which material to use, work with a design engineer. Working together will save you time and effort.

A well-designed injection mold will be more efficient and last longer than a poorly-designed one. This is an important consideration if you’re trying to find a reliable injection mold builder. Make sure your mold is designed by a trusted mold builder, like Matrix Tooling Inc.

Optimising the mold design

The design of your mold is the key to reducing the cost of production. Having an efficient mold will help you produce more pieces in the same amount of time.

For example, if you are designing a mold for a plastic piece, you should focus on making sure that it can produce multiple pieces in one machine cycle. This will save you both time and money.

There are many ways to design your plastic injection mold. It is important to choose the right material. Different plastics have different properties and should be selected for the right purpose.

In addition to the plastic used, you also need to consider the function of the product and the factors that will affect it. For example, plastics need to be durable and able to resist extreme temperature variations. This is called the Factor of Safety.

The design of the mold is important in reducing the cost of injection molding. It should have efficient mechanisms for ejecting the plastic product quickly. This can be achieved using rods, air blasts, or plates. The faster the plastic product can be ejected, the more money you will save.

Optimising the mold design will also help you reduce the overall cost of your molding process. One of the most important things to consider is the location of the ejector pin.

If the pin is placed in the wrong spot, it can cause unwanted indentations on the finished product. Furthermore, it can also rupture the part in the mold. A poor-placed ejector pin may also lead to cosmetic defects. To minimise this risk, it is recommended to place the ejector pin in the deepest part of the mold cross-section.

Another important aspect to consider is the draft angle. The angle at which a plastic part is ejected should be low enough to reduce friction and wear.

Otherwise, the parts will be too stiff to be ejected and may cause drag marks or blemishes on the plastic part. Ideally, the draft angle should be between 1.5 and 2deg on both sides. However, if your plastic parts have a rough surface, you may need a higher draft angle.

Automation

Automation helps reduce the cost of manufacturing plastic injection molds. This is largely due to the fact that automated machines can streamline the process while reducing labor costs.

Additionally, automated machinery can produce more precise components and improve the quality of the finished product. Automation also reduces waste and can improve overall production output.

It also reduces the need for new molds after each design change, which saves companies time and money. For example, if a company wants to produce a snap-together top and bottom container for a product, it will not have to buy two separate molds every time the design changes. Automation can also help companies save money by speeding up the design process.

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Another way that automation reduces injection mold cost is by automating manual tasks. Often, a human workforce is needed to maintain the molds, but this can be expensive and inflexible.

By automating repetitive tasks, a robot can increase the consistency of molded parts. It can also handle parts that need to be overmolded or further processed.

Robotic arms can replace ejector mechanisms in molds. The robots can do the inserting without human intervention, which reduces the time-to-market and costs.

Robots can also perform secondary operations, such as inspection and testing, which minimizes the need for manual intervention. Furthermore, they can run in full automatic mode, whereas manual inserting requires a stop and the operator must disengage safety measures.

Materials used

Injection molding is a process used to create complex mold designs. It also produces superior results. Although it’s a costly process, the quality of the end product is what’s important. It’s also used in industrial settings. While materials are a major factor, there are many ways to lower the cost of an injection mold.

One of the best ways to reduce the cost of an injection mold is to design a mold with a smaller cavity. A larger mold is more complicated and has a larger cavity area. It requires more materials to be injected into it, so it costs more. Similarly, a smaller mold is less complex than a larger mold.

Another way to reduce the cost of an injection mold is to simplify the design. Avoid features like undercuts and complex finishing that complicate the injection molding process. Use sliding shutoffs and pass-through cores to reduce the number of cavities.

Also, adjust the parting line and draft angle. These techniques can help you reduce your tooling cost without sacrificing the quality of the finished product.

Another way to reduce the cost of an injection mold is to build it with thinner walls. This way, you’ll use less material, which will lead to a lower cost and faster cycle time. However, thin walls are not suitable for all applications, and you might end up with weaker parts that break easier.

Another way to reduce the cost of an injection mold is to use aluminum instead of hardened tool steel. Aluminum has an advantage over hardened tool steel when it comes to heat transfer and cooling time.

This way, your parts will cool more quickly, and the mold can be designed more efficiently. Another benefit is that aluminum doesn’t require annealing, which means that you can create your molds faster.

Injection Molding Tooling Cost

Injection molding tooling for a mid-level order (around - small parts), can cost up to $10,000. For more complex geometries and large orders, the cost can go up to $100,000.

Tooling costs depend on how complex or large your parts will be. In other words, if your part is complex (for example, if it has intricate geometry or dense walls), the manufacturer may need to use a special (i.e. more expensive) machine to complete your order.

Injection molding tooling cost increases exponentially if we are talking about a large custom-designed part. From the operator's perspective, it is preferable to use small (desktop) injection molding machines (and even 3D printers) in order to fulfill low-volume orders.

Large, industrial plastic injection molding machines can cost over $200,000 and have additional costs that are related to skilled labor training, maintenance, monitoring, and even industry regulations. These types of machines are reserved for high-volume orders.

Injection Molded Parts

Injection molded parts cost varies based on mold upkeep, the time to form a part, and factors around the plastic. These include the part rate, the estimated amount of scrap (usually 3-5%), the plastic weight, and sometimes a mold maintenance fee, which covers the cost of injection mold warranties. The quoted price should also include any setup costs for the molds.

1. Injection Molding Cycle Time

Injection molding cycle time takes up about 60% of final part cost. The part rate comes down partially to cycle time and partially to cavitation, which is covered in the next section. Generally, manufacturers will have set hourly rates they charge for their machines.

The molding cycle can be divided into two parts:

• Injection time. This represents the time it takes for the polymer (material) to be injected into the mold. It is usually a few seconds and depends on the machine's power and shot size.
• Cooling time. This represents approximately 80% of the entire cycle time. It heavily affects the quality of the end part, as it is the time it takes the material to cool and shrink.

The overall cycle time can be estimated as:

In this equation α is the thermal diffusivity coefficient and h max is the maximum wall thickness in millimeters. While the first is a material-specific constant, the latter is a design choice or requirement. As such, depending on the part's complexity, the cycle time can take up to two minutes.

As a manufacturer, it is preferable to maintain the cycle time to as low as a number as possible, since that translates into the production of more parts in a given time.

2. Mold Cavitation

Mold cavitation cost, another factor in price per part rate, increases with the number of cavities. Cavitation is the amount of identical cavities that produce parts per mold. The injection mold itself can cost thousands of dollars.

Mold cavitation is related to part size and design. If your part is relatively simple, single cavity molds are usually more affordable. However, if the part's geometry allows it, it is preferable to go for multiple-cavity molds to speed up the production process (making production less expensive over time). Larger parts may, however, not allow for this.

You can either buy a ready-made injection mold or have one made for you. Ready-made mold use is a common practice and the less expensive option, especially in the electronics industry since standardization is quite prevalent. You can also have one produced for you, which is better for unique designs.

Another aspect to keep in mind is that for custom injection molds, the geometry has to be compatible with the machine used by the manufacturer. This constraint may affect your project (and possibly design), so it is best to make sure the company you are interested in can fulfill the order.

3. Plastic Weight

Plastic weight cost includes both the plastic formed into parts and the hardened plastic left over in the mold. You'll also have to cover the cost of the plastic weight, not only in the parts but in the runner, sprue, and gate as well (the runner and sprue are channels molten plastic flows through to get into the mold, while the gate prevents plastic from flowing out once it's inside). For example, if you end up with 4lbs of parts, and 1lb of leftover plastic that hardens in the sprue and runner, you'll pay for 5 lbs.

Set scrap rates will also go into the final cost of injection molding. These are for purging the plastic injection molding machines of previous plastics from the barrel and screws as well as reloading them with your plastic.

4. Injection Molding Setup Costs

Mold setup costs include optimizing the process as well as physically setting up the materials and machinery to create your parts. These are part of the final price per part. The process will be optimized, and there may be some setup time that goes into preparations, which most companies will charge as its own flat fee. This may encompass processes like drying the resin, hanging the molds, arranging water lines, external troubles, and any type of sensors in the mold. It may also include any type of special cooling required or specific gating scheme that acts as a hot manifold system (which keeps runners hot enough to keep the plastic in them liquid).

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