What does the cost of injection mold cost?
The injection mold cost is the mold material cost + processing cost + tax. Of course, there is also labor cost, we can think that labor cost is included in the processing cost, of course, there is also the design cost.
First, whether the product is reasonably designed will affect the injection mold cost
The design of the product is reasonable or not, why is the biggest factor that affects the cost of the mold?
Think carefully, if the product design is not reasonable, for injection mold companies, how a situation, that is a disaster. I have been engaged in the mold for more than 40 years, such things have experienced a lot, sometimes in order to achieve a product on the buckle, and product engineers and mold designers do not have good communication, the cost of the mold will increase exponentially.
There are too many such examples. Therefore, a product designer, to try to understand as much as possible the knowledge of the mold, so that the design of the product as much as possible suitable for mold engineering, does not increase the difficulty and cost of mold production for no reason.
Under the premise of satisfying the whole vehicle assembly, maintaining good communication with the mold department is the most effective and direct measure to reduce the injection mold cost.
In fact, this is a major social trend, nowadays, the better-operating companies are injection molding companies and injection mold companies combined as one, and companies that exist solely by making molds are almost unable to survive. Therefore, the product design is not reasonable, it will directly increase the injection mold cost.
Second, the design change of products will affect the injection mold cost
Mold companies often encounter such a situation, in a project, the mold was just designed, the mold frame just ordered back, the customer’s set to change notice came.
If it is a small change, does not affect the total structure of the mold, it does not matter, sometimes the situation is more serious, because the shape of the product change, the mold increases the mechanism, even the mold frame has to be re-order. This cost will increase a lot.
We need to minimize the design changes as much as possible. Now there are a lot of rapid prototyping means, before making the mold according to 3D will be made out of the hand board, for the whole car assembly, timely correction of the product 3D, can minimize the cost increase caused by product design changes.
Third, whether the mold design is perfect will affect the injection mold cost
Here are two kinds of situations to analyze.
① Reasonableness and processability of mold design
General mold enterprises, the design team must have old, experienced designers, but also young engineers just out of school, we cannot ask young engineers just come to the enterprise can independently design a high level of mold, is a rich experience in injection mold engineers, if the mold structure behind closed doors, it is impossible to be perfect, there will certainly be some poorly considered details.
One of the most important and effective methods is the collective review. Now there are a lot of simulation means, such as mold flow analysis, injection mold structure dynamic analysis, 3D comparison analysis of the product and the design of the product, etc., that can minimize the cost increase due to the unreasonable mold design.
② Design waste
If the injection mold user clearly as long as the injection mold production 500 pieces of samples, is used to develop the market, but if we according to the life of 300,000 die to design the injection mold, the cost is big, belongs to the design waste.
Fourth, try to reduce the number of injection mold trials to reduce injection mold costs
Many injection mold enterprises, the calculation of mold processing costs, is to injection mold received orders to the injection mold after the days of the qualified factory to calculate the processing costs, if the injection mold after many trial molds still cannot be delivered, in addition to the contract to be fined, the more days the mold in the factory, the more processing costs.
Of course, the cost of trial molds is also very significant. Therefore, multiple or uncontrollable numbers of mold trials are a big blind spot for injection mold cost control.
Let’s analyze the reasons for the high number of injection mold trials.
①: The mold design is not fully reviewed collectively, and the mold structure is unreasonable, which makes the injection mold be improved several times after the mold trial, making the injection mold cost exceed the budget.
If after several improvements, it can be fixed, it is more fortunate, there are many cases that are not as good as expected, even the mold has to be scrapped and redone, this cost cannot be controlled.
There are also cases where the mold design is good, but the processing of the mold is not in place, making the number of mold trials increase for no reason, directly increasing the cost of the mold. This problem is not objectionable, so many mold companies have increased their investment in measuring equipment.
②: The best molding process and injection molding machine model are not selected during the mold trial, obviously the mold is well made, but the injection molded product is not ideal. The number of mold trials is increased for no reason, which directly increases the mold cost. This is the common problem of some small mold factories.
③: There is no sufficient understanding of the physical properties of plastics, and even the shrinkage rate is not accurate, which happens from time to time. Therefore, the design of the mold must be clear before the physical properties of plastic, in order to effectively reduce the number of test molds.
Fifth, mold materials and standard parts procurement will affect the injection mold cost
To choose a stable and reputable supplier of mold materials and injection mold standard parts. If due to greedy cheap, and rash purchase, make mold problems, it is very unfortunate. Such a situation is in fact a lot. Although the supplier can be held responsible, the biggest loss or injection molding enterprises and mold users.
Sixth, whether the product is qualified will affect the injection mold cost
If we say, we used 100,000 yuan, asked to do a set of car miscellaneous box mold, the plastic used is PA + 30% GF, injection molding cycle of 30 seconds, injection mold life of 300,000 die.
As a result, the mold was made and the size and physical properties of the sample were achieved, but the injection cycle took 60 seconds because of the difficulty of taking the parts during injection, and the injection mold could not be used after 100,000 pieces were produced, so in order to catch up with the whole car package, the mold had to be invested again.
According to the original injection mold situation, we had to invest in 3 sets of molds at once. Again, spending so much money, my opinion is that the cost of this set of injection molds is 3 times or 6 times the original budget.
In summary, to effectively control the injection mold costs, it is necessary to do an invert.
Reasonable product design, as little as possible design changes, perfect injection mold design and processing process, good communication between product engineers and mold engineers.
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