One of my customers, Rob, from United States, asked me once, why the offers I got from China mold factories are so different in pricing? Their prices are so different, some are cheap and some are very expensive, which make the offers are meaningless for reference. An interesting question that maybe most of the injection mold buyers would be interested to know why. You may have visited a lots of mold factories before actually buying plastic molds from China, these factory are different in size and capacity, the facilities and management cost is one of the factor that will influence the price while you got from a bigger and more fabulous Chinese mold factory. Yet it is not the key factor to affect the price, this article will remind your something you may have missed on plastic injection mold inquiry, then you can get a real cheap price.
Look into the mold design, different mold design with different price
The injection mold size is determined by the mold design, if the mold size was designed to be smaller without considering the capacity and production performance, the injection mold company will save cost on mold steel. For example, regarding a small undercut, some mold factories would like to use direct releasing instead of sliders or lifers, so the mold size is smaller, the plastic injection mold factory also save cost on sliders and lifers manufacturing.
What is the brand of mold steel?
Mold steel is an invisible but one of the plastic injection mold important issues, mold steel are so different in pricing as well as the performance, even the same grade plastic mold steel. Take AISI H13 Steel for instance, there are a few mold steel brand out there in China, LKM H13, LKM 1.2344, ASSAB, whenever you get a quotation from a plastic mold company, do not forget look into these. In Aco Mold, we always provide steel and heat treatment certificates to our customer.
What is the standard of mold base?
Mold base, DME, HASCO, LKM and FUTABA are well-known brands in China, there are a lots of China local mold base supplier. The differences are not just about the pricing but also the precision and durability. Usually the customer will specify what kind of mold base they would like to have, some of the customers do not, in this case, Aco Mold will ask options from customers, my experience is the western customers prefer to have LKM mold base with DME or Hasco guide system.
How to get a plastic injection mold quotation with reasonable price?
A professional plastic injection mold buyer usually knows what they are looking for. To get a low cost injection mold, a detailed plastic mold specification should be provided to sereral Chinese plastic mold factories for comparing. You can specify the mold steel of each plate, mold base brand, mold accessories standard, de-molding way, basic mechanism structure, gating, runner etc. as long as the details are provided, the prices from different injection mold companies would not have that much differences if they are in the same area. In Aco Mold, we can provide DFM report with the plastic mold quotation to our long-term relationship customers.
