Best way to produce small plastic parts?

[denvermatt]

I have a consumer product I am working to develop, and I don't know hardly anything about what you guys do. My ignorance appears to embolden my potential vendors into providing inflated quotes. Here are my issues:

I am currently at the Prototyping phase of the thing, and I'm working on resolving two issues:

1. Prototyping - I need a way to make a couple thousand plastic discs for the prototype models I'm making. I've seen the instructions on making your own injection molding machine on eBay, and I've seen that many of you seem to think those instructions are of good value. That's great! My question on that is how fast is that machine? Does each part need several minutes of labor? Or can I bang out several per minute? Also, how precise is this machine? My pieces need to "snap" together and stay together - I can't let my investors see pieces falling apart. They'll get wobbly if they think there's a quality issue.

2. Mass Production - The people I've contacted so far to do production on the product are coming in with prices that seem far too high to me. My pieces are fairly simple, around 1.5" x 0.1", and 1" x 0.03". My initial order would be for around 250,000 pieces. I thought I should pay between 2 and 5 cents each for them (after buying dies of course), but the prices I'm seeing are around 50 cents each! Far too high for me to realistically get my product retailed.

I'm waiting on some numbers from a Chinese manufacturer, but my preference is to use a domestic source. It isn't political with me, it's an issue of being able to control quality and have faster turnaround times in case I get a big order.

So, my question is this: Are my expectations unrealistic? Or do you guys have any suggestions for a producer that would be more reasonable?

[jfrank3]

The part cost is going to depend on cavitation in the mold, and the type of material. Our raw material cost has increased quite a bit lately. I'm in a mold shop in Houston, and would be interested in looking at your project. Both for a prototype tool and the production tool. We have 21 machines here, from 50 to 350 ton.

[Michael.lee]

denvermatt,

We are a professional mouldmaking and molding supplier in Shenzhen, China. we are interested with your project, and would like to look your project and provide our economical price if possible.

The price of the product need consider items underneath,
- mould cavities ;
- product material ;
- the cycle time ;
- injection machine size ;

Please send us your information of the prototype phase and mass production phase, then we will review your projects and prepare our quotation for your information, if there is anything else need contacted furthermore, I will let you know timely.

Professional mouldmaking service, short leadtime, reasonable price, prompt communication - that's what you can find from us after cooperation.

I am looking forward to your contact, thanks.

Michael.lee

UnionMould Plastic Industrial co. ltd
michael@union-mould.com

[MrMold]

I'm pretty sure I can help you. Short runs and tooling my specialty!

[raynjer]

Trust me on this - you don't need to go to China for a small job like this. If you had a large program of molds and people in place to handle the logistics, you might consider. But not for this project. Shipping costs and duties don't justify this.
Also, you don't want to do the Ebay do-it-yourself machines - not if you want to get quality parts to impress the customer. Those are great for hobbyists only.
The previous responses from Houston and Mr Mold may give you just what you need. They will have access to proper molding machines that can give you quality parts
If you were to give me more information about the part, I could give you approx prices of what prototype molds, production molds and part price should work out to using the costing software I sell. Call it an early Christmas gift for one entrepreneur to another!
Contact me at CalCard_Demo@JDLTech.ca

[Kevin R]

DenverMatt,
Your part based on your description might be more cost effective to be extruded and then cut, not injected. People will probably disagree with me, however the objective is to make money for yourself and not for everyone else. It sounds like you would like to commit to approximately $12,500.00. I can tell you my first ventures had the highest learning curve and cost the most. That money can be put to work differently with far more value. If you are looking to go into business a good place to start is reading this. This single article changed some things for me http://www.sherline.com/bsnsbook.htm If you would like to hear a little more about what I was talking about with the extrusion feel free to send me an email kevin@backyardengineer.com or check out my site http://www.backyardengineer.com

Lastly,
Although this process is not typical for your size peice you might want to consider it. Tooling costs would be substantially less. Hell you could probably build the extruder over a couple of week period. It might be a two step process anyway shoot me an email.
Kevin Regan

[svenakela]

I'll say it all depends on the shape of the piece, there's a uge amount of money in making the mold. If it's a simple part it shouldn't be a problem to shoot a chart of 10-50 pieces at the same time. That depends on the mold machine though.

This thread has turned into a quotation, so I'll move it to the quote-forum.
Good luck with your product!

[Geof]

Discs 1.5" x 0.1" and 1.03" x .03"

How tight are the tolerances?

What is the material?

Do they have to be perfectly flat or can a small burr be tolerated on the rim?

Styrene, polyethylene, polypropylene, polycarbonate, ABS, PVC are all available in sheet and film; You should be able to get discs like this punched out in large quantity for very little more than the material cost. For your prototyping you could do your thousand or so just using a simple setup on a manual arbor press.

[kvnlrndt]

sounds like a good job for a lil die
probly take a week to make

[Kevin R]

If they are flat disks, like you say, you may be able to have them carved out using a cnc router. This would give you some very fine tolerances on the flat surfaces of the disk as well as provide you with a way to engrave. This does a couple of things, 1, you could be running smoothly with your own equipment, for less then $1,500.00 upfront costs and you can test out your market before dumping thousands into a mold. If it were me, I would try to make a plastic part that is a bit more expensive. Your margins might be a bit higher. Instead of having to sell thousands before making a profit. If you wanted to inject using the machine I built. It takes roughly 4 minutes to do an injection. It is a hobby machine, but gives you the opportunity to see your product. I call it X-Ject hope this helps. I am working on molding injection molds out of epoxy. One of my customers hopes to have his product in stores in the next 3 weeks, he puts in a lot of sweat equity. I told him he should make something more expensive as well.

Kevin
http://www.backyardengineer.com