How do you know whether it makes sense to opt for plastic injection moulding? In a word: Quantity.
Quantity
Injection moulding is the preferred process when you need thousands or millions of the same part or product. Not for just a few single units. The process involves heating up the raw plastic materials (usually small beads or pellets) to a liquid or near-liquid state, and then squirting it under pressure into a cavity or mould. View our indicative pricing.
The process
You may need some specialist advice in bringing your plasticware to the market. We can help you with all the various stages of this process. Keep in mind that the initial set up costs might be high, therefore this might not be the desired process if you only want to manufacture a small amount of items. The moulds are built by specialists and therefore should last for runs of up to a several hundred thousand items before needing refurbishment.
Below is a description of how the price is determined. Please feel free to contact us in order to obtain a free & formal quote.
6 Factors influencing price
Weight of the plastic (parts can be as small as the inside of a watch or as large as the bumper of a car). Materials used (there is a wide variety of raw materials and different grades of each). Thickness of the moulded part. Accuracy of the moulded part. Number of cavities required to make the mould. Quantity of the order (there might be a cost to set up your production run).
Rule of thumb
This is a rough estimate: for a single cavity mould, the cost of the materials will amount to around one third (roughly 30%) of the selling price of the injection moulded part. This will vary according to factors mentioned above. The remainder will be attributed to the cost of manufacturing that mould, machine, processing and production time, labour, overheads and a profit margin.
Cost of materials
This varies considerably and is based on the quality more than the quantity of materials or from where in the world you have sourced it. You need to ensure that the quality matches the desired application or use of the product. Let’s have a look at some very broad estimates as a rough guideline:
- Materials to manufacture plastic buckets may be R20/kg.
- Materials for clear drinking tumblers it may be R20/kg.
- Materials for the protective sheets in cars & banks may be R150/kg.
- Materials for high heat and chemical resistance may be R250/kg.