Who can help me? I’m working on my final design for the Jan des Bouvrie Academie in the Netherlands. I’m designing a new furniture line for business events. The furniture’s are produced in plastic. I don’t know that much about the plastic business but maybe one of you can help me with that?

My biggest concern are the finances. If I produce my furniture on a small scale is this worth the trouble of creating a new mold? Or do I have to produce my furniture on al larger scale to make ends meet? The furniture are rentable, so that meant I only need about 10 copies of some of the furniture. Is this possible or not?

Thanks for your help!
Jamie Scherer Jansen

Hi,Jamie,please give more information.

Hi Jamie, you are talking about a new line of plastic furniture which means many products. You are talking a about huge sum of money to do that. I suggest you concentrate on only one product for your graduation project and try to find a manufacturer in your country to cooperate with you to make the mold. Molds are very expensive and you need to sell very large quantities to recover the cost of the mold.

Hi Jamie,
I think you picked a great subject for your choice of projects. Furniture manufacturers face the economics question all the time. I agree with Mansour Al-Rajabi that the cost of building an injection mold will be too expensive for just 10 parts. Typically, molds can cost thousands of dollars.

I looked up your school (it's very nice!) and noticed that it specializes in scandinavian style design? That style that is very clean and minimalistic? You may be want to investigate using extruded plastic boards and other shapes from a plastic shapes supplier. You can cut, screw, bond and modify the shapes simular to if you made your furniture from wood. Some of those shapes are made from recycled plastics so you could focus on that element as well.

Best of luck on your project.

I agree with Kirk. It's better look for another option. Besides from wood, you may also consider metal + wood / bamboo / rattan / etc design - which I trust there are lots of office supplies company who may help.

Hello Mansour,

Thank u for this information! It's very helpful.

Kind regards,
Jamie Scherer Jansen

Thanks everyone for all your help! Kirk, the idea of using extruded plastic board is very helpfull! I'm definitly going to look into that. The use of a different material is also an option, but the material has to be lightweight. The idea of my furniture line is that visitors can arrange the furniture depending on their needs. So the have to be able to pick the furniture up and move it across the room. I don't think metal or wood are usefull for this...