When 3D printing and machining aren’t enough to meet the needs of polymer parts, product makers should use injection moulding instead. For traditional injection moulding, you have to find the right tooling provider and buy the tools, which can take a few months. Even though it is very hard and takes a long time, the cost per unit is pretty low, especially when you make a lot of them. Short run plastic injection moulding is a good option, though.
How to Understand Injection moulding for small runs
Short-run injection moulding uses less expensive tools than long-run injection moulding when only a few of the product are being made. The traditional high-volume manufacturing system needs a lot of stiffness, a long cycle time, and a lot of money to set up. This process gets rid of all of those problems. In this case, though, short-run injection moulding works better in the short term than in the long term.
For some 2K injection molding project, if there only need a few thousands of parts, they may think about overmolding instead of 2k molding process, because 2K molding need double injection molding machine and this machine will be very high cost, specially, this machine can only for 2K mold purpose.
The “hard” production mold tools are made of bonded tool steel, while the “soft” moulds are made of aluminium. People say that this metal is good to work with and that it passes heat well. Aluminium moulds aren’t as hard as steel moulds, but they work best for small runs of less than 10,000 pieces. They are also less expensive than steel moulds, and the finished parts are made in weeks instead of months like with steel moulds.
Because it’s cheap and quick, short run injection moulding is the best option for businesses that need high-quality plastic parts quickly.
Why short-run injection moulding is a good idea
Here are some of the benefits of short-run injection moulding:
The price of aluminium injection moulds is lower than the price of strengthened steel moulds on the market right now. How much you save depends on how many holes there are, how the part is shaped, and any moulding problems like undercuts or inserts. The change in costs is usually quite big, though.
But that’s not the only good thing about this; you also have to think about how much it will cost. Because changes can be made quickly and cycle times are short, they can help cut down on the time it takes to build products and get them to market. This is different from most businesses, though: our short-run injection moulding service doesn’t force customers to buy in bulk. They are made from materials that are good enough for production and have good enough finishes on the outside that they can be used.
How much does short-run injection moulding cost to make parts?
It is also important to know that the fixed cost of making the short run injection mould for making small amounts of goods must be spread out over the number of orders.
Short run injection moulding is usually good for parts that need to be made in small numbers, like 1 to 10,000. Sincere Tech offers two types of tooling: trial moulds come with a warranty for at least 2,000 shots, and on-demand production moulds come with a warranty for the life of the mould. In the event that the aluminium tool breaks, the business will fix it at no cost to the customer. In terms of the amount of product that can be made, both choices are pretty cheap.
PPAP, capability reports, scientific moulding process development reports, and first item inspection are some of the other special services that we offer. A short-run aluminium plastic mold can be used as the end product mould, some clients have learnt.
If the numbers are in the millions, it might be better to use production tools. With that said, 3D printing might be less expensive if you only need to make a few items. Some companies make samples with 3D printing and then use small run injection moulding to make the real things.
What Short Run Injection Moulding Can Do for You
It depends on what the organisation needs and what is going on in the organisation to find the best plan. A short-run injection instrument can be used by a medical device company that has made a new gadget but isn’t sure how well it will sell in the market. This is in favour of a “pay-as-you-go” method when the product first comes out. The aluminium mould can be used as a temporary tool until the production mould is made in case they decide to buy a steel tool afterwards.
It’s also important to remember that bridge tools aren’t just used during the ramp-up stage of a new product’s release. They can be a pretty cheap way to protect programs that are already up and running. For example, a person who makes appliances was able to keep working because they used a bridge tool to fix the main tool. Now that they have an extra mould, they can use it in the future if, say, demand for the product goes up or if the current tool stops working.
Short-run injection moulding is a good way for designers to get the best mould design and performance from the end product with a lower risk than using steel production tools directly from 3D printed models. Since it saves money, this is especially important in fields like medical devices where it’s important to cut down on the time it takes to make goods while still making sure they meet all the rules.
Injection moulding for large amounts
In the event that short-run injection moulding doesn’t work for you, our digital network can make a lot of bigger, more complicated parts. Our list of services can be expanded to include;
Quotes for more than 100,000 parts Projects for moulded parts that are big, heavy, and have a lot of different parts
The machine can mould parts that are up to 79 inches (2 meters) long.
Mold-Tech finishes and different surface finishes (A1–A3, B1–B3, C1–C3, D1–D3). Tools like Tool Steel P20 and Aluminium & Steel, as well as color-matching tools based on what the customer wants.
Want to know more about short run injection moulding? You can send a file for a free check to see if it can be moulded, and then you can talk to a member of the Protolabs moulding team. With our help, you can start making things quickly and well.
How much does short-run injection moulding cost?
An electric kettle, light controls, and computer keys are all everyday items that have parts made by injection moulding. These kinds of products are usually made in big quantities, starting with hundreds of thousands of sets.
This building method has many advantages, including being flexible, low-cost, and able to use a wide range of materials.
There are many types of materials that can be used with this method, and it is cheaper per part, making it the best choice for mass production. The low prices we have now are possible because of this process. The cost of parts is measured in pennies, and cycle times are measured in seconds. Also, the choice of materials is important. Elastic elastomers and plastics are examples of materials that can be used instead of metals in some situations.
What should you do if you only need a few parts?
There is a big difference in the cost of making when only a few parts need to be made. It costs a lot of money and takes a long time to make tools the old-fashioned way. There are, however, many new alternatives that can be used to cut costs today.
The setup and ongoing costs are the most important ones.
The mould is set up, the material or colour is dried and given, the tool is put in the mould, and the first quality control samples are taken while the mould is being set up. The mould has to be opened and put away after the moulding cycle, and the tools has to be kept safe. The rest of the material has to be stripped off. This setup can take anywhere from an hour to half a day, based on the size of the tools and the number of material and colour changes. It is usually charged by the part, especially for short runs.
The process of making shapes
The material used, the press, and whether the media are run by hand or automatically are some of the costs that come up during the moulding phase. The amount of material bought and the type of material used can also change the cost. Buying a small amount of the same material can cost a lot more than buying a large amount of the same material. Because they are used to make the end product, specialised pigments can also make prices go up.
Some of the things that affect the cost of the press are the tonnage and the shot weight. The shot weight is the amount of plastic that is injected in a single run. Large presses are expensive because they cost a lot to run and break down quickly. The costs may also change if you have to do things by hand, like insert loading and unloading or any other post-molding tasks.
There is a difference between tools that are fully automated and make a lot of things all the time and tools that are made for small lots and need to be moved and packed by hand.
Other Options Besides Prototyping
It is very helpful to make prototypes out of the material that will be used for production. There are many types of tools that can be used for prototypes and small runs, and as few as two parts can be moulded at a time. However, the speed at which prototypes and parts are made can vary, and sometimes it can take days. This is contingent upon the surface, make-up, and shape of the building that needs covering. Most of the time, the delays last between two and four weeks.
Spending on tools
How much tooling costs relies on how complicated the part is, how big it is, and how long it takes to make. Moulds are not cheap. The simplest ones cost at least £2,000, while the more complicated ones cost between £5,000 and £7,000. Big or hard to understand things can cost up to £30,000. Accurate cost estimates are based on information about the specific job and the detailed quote.
It is best to talk to professionals about low-volume injection moulding projects to get a better idea of how much they might cost and what solutions might work. If you want to know how much the quantities you need will cost and are thinking about using short run injection moulding for your project, please feel free to get in touch with us.
This company, Sincere Tech, does injection moulding.
Sincere Tech is one of top 10 plastic injection molding companies in China that has been around for more than ten years and has designed and made plastic injection-molded parts and goods. We can effectively handle all stages of short-run injection moulding projects because we have a lot of experience, such as Because we have so much experience, we can handle all parts of short-run injection moulding projects well, such as
Mould Design: To make instruments that meet the needs of your product, we use the best technologies and mold-making technologies. We can use your original drawings, schematics, or models to make tooling designs for you, or we can make them for you. The CAD formats that we know how to use well are AutoCAD, SolidWorks, ProE, Cimatron, and CADKey.
After the injection mould design is finished, our mould fabrication team uses the most up-to-date CNC machining techniques to make high-quality moulds with exact measurements as quickly as possible. This is an example of making your own tools. We can make prototypes out of ABS, HDPE, LDPE, PE, HIPS, TPU, and PET, among other thermoplastics.
First, we use 3D printing to quickly make each part to make sure it fits the mould and works right before we build the injection moulding tool. We can make FDM prototypes out of different materials, like ABS, PLA, and TPU. Other service providers, like urethane casting, SLS, and SLA, help us with other prototyping tasks.
Injection molding: The injection molding facility is run by experienced staff and the equipment can produce a clamping force of 28 to 240 tonnes and can also show reproducibility. The material that we process during our molding operations ranges from 0 to 16 ounces per cycle. Sincere Tech is also capable of providing injection molding services for small and large quantities of products.
We guarantee that the custom plastic injection-molded parts that we will provide at Sincere Tech will be of the best quality, will be delivered on time, and at a reasonable price.
