Injection molding is an efficient way to produce thousands or even millions of individual pieces in a very short amount of time.
This production efficiency does require a lot of preparation and the right partner. Make sure that you and your supplier are a good fit before signing on the dotted line.
Domestic Plastic Suppliers
With only 555 suppliers nationwide, it may seem challenging to find one near you. But there is actually a very broad distribution, with 51% of suppliers located in the Midwest. The remainder are evenly divided among the South, Northeast and West. These companies overwhelmingly rely on domestic supply chains for their raw materials, with only 8% importing their feedstock and granules.
How to Find the Right Supplier
When perusing the suppliers available in the U.S., you'll want to consider the following factors to determine which supplier is best suited to a partnership with your company:
Capacity. One of the first questions to ask is whether a supplier has the capacity to handle your project. A supplier with only a couple of injection molding machines may not be able to handle a production run of several thousand parts per day.
However, it may be perfect for a one-off production run or minor prototyping.
Compliance and Standards. If your business is in an industry constrained by certain standards, make sure your supplier complies with them.
You don't want to build thousands of pieces for a medical device only to find that your supplier is aviation compliant instead.
Fortunately, the chances of this happening are low as they will most likely tell you what their compliance specialties are.
Materials.Be as thorough as possible about all the use cases for your product because the right plastic can make or break your project.
Will it be exposed to extreme temperatures? Will it be in contact with caustic materials? What about vibrations or physical stresses?
All of these parameters will dictate the type of plastic that will be used in your product.
Design and Molding Is your product already tested and ready to produce? If not, you may need help with drafting, prototypes and mock-ups to ensure that everything fits. Remember that parts have to be designed for production as well as performance.
Just because an object is perfect in CAD doesn't mean it will be when made into a physical object. Slight differences in machine tolerances, different textures of plastics and even different molding temperatures all play a role in the final fit.
If your product is still in these beginning stages, look for a supplier that offers drafting and prototyping services in-house. Outsourcing prototyping is not only expensive, but time-consuming. This is especially true when modifications are necessary to fine-tune the design. The extra time spent on this will pay dividends later, when your production proceeds without any redesign requirements.
You should also consider whether you will utilize mutiple molds or inserts. An insert fits inside a master mold and allows for the creation of slightly different parts to be made without needing to machine an entirely new mold. Inserts take more time to switch out but are less expensive to fabricate.
This attention to detail can also help moderate the cost of molds.
A simple single-cavity mold may cost just a few thousand dollars, but a complex, multiple-cavity mold can cost nearly $100,000.
Small shape changes can result in radical differences in mold cost. As mentioned earlier, in-depth preparation prevents costly surprises once the plastic starts flowing. Your supplier can help you find a solution that will produce strong, durable pieces at a price point that lets your company turn a profit.
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