share your experience with offshore molds, dies or machined parts

[3D Accuracy]

Hello everyone,

Are there any members out there from the USA who have had experience buying or repairing offshore molds, dies or machined parts from China, India or Portugal?

The majority of companies I've talked to have had mostly negative experiences with offshore vendors. I'm in the process of creating a resource for mold shops, injection molders and die casters so they can educate their customers on the pitfalls of using offshore mold factories and I would appreciate your help.

If you have any experience at all no matter how small I would like to hear from you. Please send me a private message or direct e-mail.

Have a terrific weekend!

Robert
3D Accuracy

[universalfab]

Sure have, we do alot of sheetmetal fabrication and use dies in are press break. We go to auctions once and a while and bought some press break dies, most of them were all U.S.A. made. Which is what we expected until we got the pallet load home and looked through it. Once we got to the bottom of it we seen some chinese stamped garbage. Also just to let everyone know this pallet was all new dies. The male and female matching dies didn't match up together worth a dam and varied in height from one end to the other. Rough edges and just total garbage, garbage thats exactly what I expected from china. Tried them and they bent horribly off. You want it done right you go U.S.A. There's been other things I've messed around with at friends houses that they bought chinese which were also total crap. Mills, lathes, tooling for mills and lathes, drill press, hand tools, power tools and all were and are total garbage. They ask me how can you afford to always be buying U.S.A.? We buy not only new but used and it always pays off in the short and long term. U.S.A. made tooling and machines do the job and they do the job good. Chinese and other 3rd world foreign tooling and machines are completely inferior to the U.S.A.'s. When I buy U.S.A. I know what to expect, when you buy chinese you don't know what to expect, it's a gamble that your going to lose.

[universalfab]

Good thread, sick of all the fake threads from the chinese garbage salesman.

[3D Accuracy]

Hello universalfab,

Great! Thanks for sharing your experience, it's exactly the type of thing I've been hearing from others as well.

It seems like many people have this false impression that the guy down the street is buying molds, dies and machined parts from China, India and Portugal and they're getting such a good deal. They feel pressured, often times by customers and OEM's, to do the same in order to compete. This is a huge mistake but they don't realize it.

The reality for the most part is they are all getting poor quality molds, dies and machined parts that need costly repairs in order to produce anything. None of them are experiencing an economic advantage using offshore sources, they just think the next guy is so they keep doing it. Often time the cycle times on the molds are much longer than they should be which drives up the part price and takes a big gouge out of their profits. Plus for the life of the mold or die they're struggling with inferior quality.

I'm creating a resource where everyone who has had such an experience can share their story. I want this to be a place where you can point your customer who is using or considering using offshore vendors so they can read the experiences of 20, 30 or even 100 other individuals who have had a negative experience. This will have a much greater impact on their decision than each of us telling our own individual experience and hopefully it will cause them to purchase the molds, dies and machined parts from companies here in the USA.

With your permission, I would like to reprint your experience. Please PM or e-mail with your initials and state you're in. Your experience will be reprinted to look like this:

"Sure have, we do alot of sheetmetal fabrication ... (middle part of your story) ... it's a gamble that your going to lose." your initials, your state, USA

I'll PM you a link where you'll be able to see it along with the experiences of others.

Thanks again for your help, I sincerly appreciate it. I hope to hear from others as well.

Have a terrific weekend!

Robert
3D Accuracy

[3D Accuracy]

Hello universalfab,

I was just reading your post again and I had a thought. I wonder if the Chinese dies that were hidden at the bottom of the pallet so they could be pawned off on some unsuspecting buyer were what put the original purchaser of those dies out of business, hence the auction.

If the cheap Chinese dies couldn't make product there's no way for them to be amortized ... not worth their weight in toilet paper ... the original buyer of those dies would have been better off just flushing his money down the toilet! That way he wouldn't have had to waste more time and money getting rid of the garbage.

Have a terrific weekend!

Robert
3D Accuracy

[universalfab]

3D Accuracy I sure will do that. I completely agree with the comments you've made. Yeah that's exactly what it was, they put the chinese garbage at the bottom hoping for some sucker to by them. Well the poor sucker was me, luckilly most of it was U.S.A. made and gave us no problems whatsoever and the dies are still working flawlessly today. If you want it done right the first time around go U.S.A. all the way!!

[MrWild]

The company I worked for bought a pierce and form die set from over seas. It looked gorgeous and the one engineer was rubbing in that we couldn't touch it for what he paid. Everything was ground including the die shoe. HEH, we put it in the try out press... GARBAGE. But shipping it back was not an option. I was told to fix it. Everything was out of tolerance. The dowel pins either fell out or were galled and un-removeble. It was a gold plated turd. Ended up building a new one from scratch.

[3D Accuracy]

3D Accuracy I sure will do that. I completely agree with the comments you've made. Yeah that's exactly what it was, they put the chinese garbage at the bottom hoping for some sucker to by them. Well the poor sucker was me, luckilly most of it was U.S.A. made and gave us no problems whatsoever and the dies are still working flawlessly today. If you want it done right the first time around go U.S.A. all the way!!

Hey universalfab,

Thanks for your PM with your intitials and state. I'm going to edit your second reply into the first one for more impact and reprint them in my resource. I'll PM you when I have it finished.

The company I worked for bought a pierce and form die set from over seas. It looked gorgeous and the one engineer was rubbing in that we couldn't touch it for what he paid. Everything was ground including the die shoe. HEH, we put it in the try out press... GARBAGE. But shipping it back was not an option. I was told to fix it. Everything was out of tolerance. The dowel pins either fell out or were galled and un-removeble. It was a gold plated turd. Ended up building a new one from scratch.

Hello MrWild,

Thank you for sharing, this is another great story that others need to hear about. With your permission, I would like to reprint your experience. Please PM or e-mail with your initials and state you're in.

I'll PM you a link where you'll be able to see it along with the experiences of others.

Thanks to both of you for your help, I sincerly appreciate it.

Anyone else have a good story to share?

Have a terrific weekend!

Robert
3D Accuracy

[roninB4]

There's a number of injection molds that are purchased by Denso offshore. Sometimes they're Korean, Chinese, or Japanese. The Korean I can't speak for, the Japanese are good but expensive. The Chinese (not to be bashing them) are of a wide variance in quality. Unless you're right there, they might/might not substitute types of steels used (gee steel is steel isn't it.....) in a mold/die. Any corner cutting that improves profit will likely be taken regardless of the consequences. There's even a paper on the department drive that lists the pitfalls of buying in China for the unwary buyer. China can make some acceptable tooling, but don't expect to get it unless you witness the process. I was once told by a Chinese girl I dated to NOT trust a Chinese businessman. She was right.

For the most part Outsourcing was embraced by those that knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. I hope they are remembered as those that helped trash a once thriving industry.

[3D Accuracy]

Hello roninB4,

Another great experience, thank you for sharing it. This is the type of story I hear repeatedly from customers, suppliers and others in the mold making, plastic molding, die casting and machining industries. It's a very common problem but I think few people realize the extensiveness of it. This is why I'm collecting experiences to place them all together in one resource for people to use and learn from.

With your permission I would like to reprint it on my resource for others to read. I will PM you.

Anyone else have a good story to share?

Have a terrific day!

Robert
3D Accuracy

[vulcanmold]

We are sorry for the bad experience for buy molds from China,
Not all the mold makers in China are bad,
There are a lot of Mold manufacturers in China work molds and dies for big companies in worldwide, and keep a long term business relation.
I believe, to get what you expected quality, it is a careful job, choose the correct supplier is the key.

[3D Accuracy]

I have been going to China for almost 14 years assisting customers who have had molds made there. The reason they send me is because they can't get a quality mold made in China no matter what mold factory makes their mold. I have been in many mold factories in China, very bad ones and the supposedly very good ones and they all have problems.

I have been in China for the last two months helping yet another customer who thought they were going to get a decent mold at a cheaper price than in the USA. The mold factory in China didn't make the mold properly, they switched steel material and they made the mold differently than the designs I provided even though they were specifically instructed not to do so by the customer. Their inability to follow instructions will cost the customer considerably.

The mold factory in China is not capable of fixing their mistakes so right now the molds are being shipped to the USA where they will be repaired by a competent mold shop. The cost savings the customer thought he was going to receive have been eliminated. By the time the molds get to the USA and are repaired the delivery will be six months late. This represents six months of lost sales that the customer will not be able to recover. His Chinese mold has cost him much more than it would have cost to have the mold made by a good mold shop in the USA.

I have seen this same type of thing repeatedly over the last 14 years from many different mold factories in China and I don't recommend to any customer to have their molds made there. Many people who have used Chinese mold factories have told me that they will never use one again because of all the problems they experienced. This particular customer has told me that his future molds will be made in the USA, China is completely out of the picture.

You are right about one thing, choosing the right supplier is key and the general consensus is that the right supplier is in the USA and definitely not in China!

By the way, it's not in good taste in the USA to spam advertise your company by plastering your posts with links to your website. On many forums this will get you removed! If you don't have anything pertinent to contribute to a thread then don't bother to post.

Have a terrrific day!
Robert
3D Accuracy