Tips to Reduce Cost in Manufacturing with Injection Molding

Injection molding is the most frequently used method for mass manufacturing of plastic products in electronics, medical, robotics, durable household appliances, automotive, defence and many other sectors with its high surface and part utility.

You must make sure that your design has been completed before mass manufacturing. Otherwise, design revisions after mold manufacturing will cost much more. Besides that, you can lower mold and manufacturing costs before manufacturing while designing your part. In this article, we have listed all the techniques and options which will allow you to obtain lower prices thanks to injection molding.

1. Avoid Additional Mold Elements

Additional mold elements such as cores, jigs or jingles that may be in the mold will have effects that increase the manufacturing cost. Running a core should be avoided as much as possible, as it will require establishing a separate system in the mold.

2. Reduce Part Volume

If the volume of the part is reduced, the use of raw materials decreases and the unit cost reductions. In addition, since the manufacturing time will be shortened, the number of parts to be produced in a day or an hour will increase, the labour and machine labour per unit piece will decrease, and the cost will be reduced. Therefore, the part’s walls that should be thinned will be able to be thinned and should be designed with the help of tie pieces. Over-engineering should be avoided as much as possible.

3. Take into Account Alternative Molds

Every project contains in itself different dynamics. In particular, it should be known how many pieces will be produced in how long and a mold design should be made accordingly.

Aluminium Mold

If manufacturing is done in a short amount of time with several 500 parts, using expensive materials like the mold’s core and primary mold materials like steel will waste time and high cost. Alternatively, using aluminium to produce mold parts will increase the mold’s manufacturing speed, and faster processing of the mold will reduce CNC labour. All these will also reduce the cost of the mold.

Single Eyed-Mold

If you need between 2,000 and 10,000 pieces of a part, the cost of choosing a one-eyed mold can be kept low in order not to enlarge the mold.

Multi-cavity Mold

Multi-cavity mold can be preferred for parts to be produced in high numbers. Thus, the unit cost can be kept low by making more than one part in the manufacturing cycle.

Multi-part Mold

Parts of similar height, such as the lower cover and the upper cover, can be put into the same mold and manufacturing can be made as a set done at once. This can reduce the cost and prevent extra mold costs from occurring.

Insert Mold

Placing metal inserts on the parts produced during molding instead of after molding will keep the cost low.

Multi-Material Mold

If more than one plastic material is used in the parts to be produced, molding these materials in the same manufacturing cycle will help keep the cost low.

Prototyping and Rapid Manufacturing

The design prototypes to be made before mold manufacturing enables functional testing of the parts, recognizing unnecessary details that may affect the cost, and ensuring the accuracy of the design. manufacturing of the designed parts only with 3D printers, then prototyping with a detailed durable industrial silicone mold and functionally testing in the long term, then pre-mass manufacturing with manufacturing methods and customer tests can be prevented with injection molding and design revisions in the mold in manufacturing. This can save you a great deal of cost, as it will prevent changes that will need to be made later in the mold.Consult an Expert

Don’t hesitate to contact your manufacturer about your design. It will be of great benefit to you that experienced manufacturers will look at the design from the manufacturer’s perspective.

As Xometry, we help you reduce your mold costs with manufacturability feedback. We help you choose the most suitable mold type for your part and the quantity you want to produce. In addition, we create prototypes that you may want to have before the final manufacturing with 3D printing and silicone molding.

Expert Xometry engineers are ready to support you to avoid unnecessary costs while receiving manufacturing service. You can consult us with your questions and get a quick offer by using the order section of our website.