Like any other major manufacturing project, cost is a significant factor for those ordering custom injection molded products of any kind. Whether you’re investing a low-quantity mold production, a huge bulk project or anything in between, understanding the costs involved and how they impact your budget and decision-making is very important.

At EnviroTech Custom Injection Molders, we’re happy to walk all our custom injection molding clients through the costs and pricing structures involved with any of our services, from slab stock molding to large-part injection molding and numerous related areas. This two-part blog series will take you through each of the contributing factors when it comes to injection molding costs and pricing, allowing you to fully understand the variables at play.

Resin Choice

First and foremost, the material chosen for the actual mold itself will play a big role in the overall cost of the project. This begins with how available the resin is – like many other materials, the rarer the resin or more difficult it is to produce, the costlier it tends to be.

There are several other related factors to keep an eye on. The quantity you need is an obvious one, as is the grade required and any potential additives or color changes you’ll be making. You’ll also need to consider whether the resin requires a high temperature, plus whether it contains any abrasive metals that might impact its maintenance costs.

Cavity Numbers

How many cavities will be required in your molded components? This impacts numerous cost factors, from time and labor to the actual manufacturing costs involved. Fewer cavities required tends to mean a lower cost, though this can vary depending on other factors. As you’re likely seeing here already, time is a major factor here within several cost-related areas.

Design Themes

Down related lines, how intricate or detailed a given part must be will play a big role in how expensive it is to produce. Extremely complex designs come with higher tool costs and also tend to take longer to complete and reproduce, while simpler ones will naturally tend to come at a lower cost in large part to how much faster they can be manufactured.

Part Size and Machining Time

Part size itself is an interesting factor. It’s not as important as part complexity – you can have smaller parts that cost much more to produce than larger ones because they’re much more detailed. At the same time, larger parts do mean more material being used and larger molds required, plus can impact machining time based on their size.

For more on the factors impacting the cost of a given plastic injection molding project, or to learn about any of our plastic mold engineering services, speak to the staff at EnviroTech Custom Injection Molders today.

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