First of all, a basic question, what is cost of mold, a friend can answer me without thinking: mold cost is mold material fee + processing fee + tax. Of course, there is also a labor fee. We can think that labor fee is included in processing fee, and of course design fee.
Rational design of products
I believe that many people will not agree with me. Whether design of product is reasonable or not, how could it be the biggest factor affecting cost of mold. Let’s take a look. Firstly they kicked the ball to our factory. But think carefully, if product design is unreasonable, it is a disaster for mold company. Sometimes, in order to achieve an undercut on product, product engineer and mold designer do not communicate well, and cost of mold will increase exponentially.
We were involved in a design of a car interior for an auto company before. One of parts is called middle partition. According to original design, this part is very large, and production cost of mold is about 4 million RMB. Matching injection molding machine is over 4,000 tons. Finally we suggested splitting it into 2 pieces. The production cost of the two sets of molds did not add up to more than 2 million. Matching injection molding machines are all 1,500 tons. Finally, all are satisfied. There are too many such examples. Therefore, a product designer should know as much as possible about knowledge of mold, so that designing product is as suitable as possible for mold engineering, and do not increase difficulty and cost of mold. Under premise of meeting assembly of vehicle, maintaining good communication with mold department is the most effective and direct measure to reduce cost of mold. There is also a philosophical question of productivity and production relations. Some product engineers believe that cost of mold is a matter for your mold company and has nothing to do with me. However, if production relationship is recombined, injection company and mold company are the same one, what will happen? In fact, this is a social trend. Companies that are operating better now are combination of injection companies and mold companies. Almost all companies that exist by making molds can hardly survive. Therefore, if product design is unreasonable, it will directly increase cost of mold.
The article comes from China injection mold manufacturer - Mold Best Assurance Company Limited, website is www.mbamoldanddesign.com
