9 Tips to Reduce Injection Moulding Costs

Everyone wants to save money on manufactured parts. It sounds simple, but one of the easiest ways to reduce price-per-piece cost in injection moulding is by increasing part quantity. That is because the initial upfront cost to design and machine the mould amortises over more parts. At Protolabs, for example, up to 25,000 parts or more can be moulded from the same tool.

However, maybe your moulding project calls for only a handful of parts. No problem. Protolabs builds cost-effective moulds for production quantities as low as 25 pieces, often within a few days of ordering.

Undercuts, such as those shown, can complicate and, in some cases, prevent part ejection, so eliminate them if possible.

In addition to per-unit costs, consider the material. Many plastics overlap in strength and functionality, but some are inherently easier to mould, driving down part costs. You can experiment with different materials in the interactive quote you receive when you upload your design to Protolabs.

Here are nine injection moulding design considerations to stretch your manufacturing budget:

1. Eliminate undercuts
2. Get rid of unnecessary features
3. Use a core cavity approach
4. Reduce cosmetic finishes and appearances
5. Design self-mating parts
6. Modify and reuse moulds
7. Pay attention to DFM analysis
8. Use a multi-cavity or family mould
9. Consider part size

Undercuts

Undercut features complicate and in some cases prevent part ejection. Get rid of them if you can, but maybe that’s not possible. If, for example, you need a side action, sliding shutoff or pick out. One alternative may be using sliding shutoffs, pass-through cores or by changing the parting line and draft angles to provide an easier mould build. These reduce tooling costs as you avoid additional pieces to the mould that add to manufacturing costs. In addition to the rise in manufacturing costs of using hand-loaded inserts, this also may have an impact on your piece part price because of longer cycle times and manual mould operation.

Using a core cavity, as shown, can be a cost-effective method of moulding tall walls and ribbed surfaces.

Unnecessary Features

Textured surfaces, moulded part numbers, and company logos look cool, but be prepared to pay a bit extra for these and other non-mission critical features. That said, permanent part numbers are a requirement for many aerospace and military applications. Use a mill-friendly font such as Century Gothic Bold, Arial, or Verdana (san-serif fonts), keep it above 20 pt., and don’t go much deeper than 0.25mm to 0.38mm. Also, be prepared to increase draft if part ejection is a concern.

Core Cavity

If you need an electronics housing or similar box-shaped part, you can either sink the wall cavities deep into the mould base, requiring long thin tools to machine ribs into the mould, or machine the aluminium material down around the core and mould the part around it. The latter approach is known as a core cavity, and is a far more cost-effective method of moulding tall walls and ribbed surfaces. Better yet, this makes it easier to provide smooth surface finishes, adequate venting, improved ejection, and can eliminate the need for super-steep draft angles.

Cosmetics

Pretty parts are nice, but they often require bead blasting, EDM, or high mould polish to achieve to achieve an elevated level of cosmetic appearance. This drives up tooling costs. Anything greater than a PM-F0 (as machined) finish requires some level of hand work, up to an SPI-A2 mirror finish using Grade #2 diamond buff. Avoid fine finishes such as these unless they’re required for the job.

Self-Mating Parts

Maybe you’re designing a snap case for medical components, or two interlocking halves of a portable radio? Why build two mating parts when you can make one?  You can redesign the snaps so that the halves can be fit together from either direction, thus building a so-called “universal” part. Only one mould is needed, saving production expenses up front. And you can now mould twice as many of one part, instead of half the quantities of two.

Mould Modifications

It is relatively easy to remove metal from an existing metal mould. Adding metal, on the other hand, can be difficult or, for all practical purposes, impossible with rapid injection moulding. To look at this from the part perspective, you can add plastic, but you can’t take it away. Designing with this in mind is called “metal safe.”

Some injection-moulded parts go through multiple iterations until a final, workable design emerges. Instead of purchasing a new mould for every revision, a little clever planning will allow the same mould to be used multiple times. Starting with the smallest, most basic part design, mould as many pieces as needed, then re-machine the mould to include additional part features, or a larger, taller version of the same part, and mould again. This is not an exact science, but given the right part, this re-use approach can save cost on tooling development.

Mouldability-DFM Analysis

Every quote for an injection-moulded part at Protolabs is accompanied by a free design for manufacturability (DFM) analysis. This identifies potential problem areas, or opportunities for design improvement. Insufficient draft angles, “un-machinable” features, impossible geometries—these are just a few examples in which part designs can and should be improved before clicking the “accept” button. Be sure to review these suggestions thoroughly, and contact an applications engineer at Protolabs with any design-related questions.

Multi-Cavity and Family Moulds

Maybe you are after a higher volume of parts? You can still achieve high volumes using aluminium tooling with two-, four-, or eight-cavity moulds depending on size and part geometry that can reduce your piece part price, although this would impact your tooling costs.

Have you got a family of parts that all fit together? How about multiple moulding projects at one time? There’s no reason to build a mould for each individual part, provided A) everything is made of the same plastic, B) each part is roughly the same size (e.g., have similar processing times), and C) can all be squeezed into the same cavity, while still allowing for proper mould functioning.

In addition, maybe you can join some of those parts with a living hinge? This method is a great way, for example, to mould two halves of a clamshell-style container. These parts would otherwise need a pin-type assembly to open and close. The only caveat here is that a flexible and tough material must be used, such as polypropylene (PP).

Part Size

Along these same lines, always consider part extents. In moulding-speak, that means how big is the part, and will it fit comfortably in the mould while allowing for sprues, runners, ejector pins, and all the other considerations needed to make a mould work. Protolabs’ maximum part size for injection moulding is currently 480mm by 751mm with a maximum depth from the parting line of 101mm deep. However, larger parts like these, in turn, require a larger mould. This may have an impact on your mould and part costs.

As always, feel free to contact an applications specialist with any questions, at +44 (0) 1952 683047 or [email protected].