The part color is the factor that designers and product engineers will neglect, as they assume piece pricing of all colors is the same.

Mirror polishing adds cost to injection molding, which requires hardened steels (NAK 80 Steel) to create the molds and cleaner injection molding condition. Also, a higher texturing requirement is another reason to cost increases.

Complexity plays a vital role in molding costs. It adds extra works to mold making and more steps on molding production. Tolerance requirements, fine detailing, or the number of undercuts are the main reasons.

“How much does the China injection molding cost to make my product?”;  “Is there any way to lower the mold cost in China?”. These are the most common questions we hear from our customers, especially start-ups. It’s quite understandable that the injection molding cost of a new plastic part is critical and sensitive, particularly when your budget is tight for a new design.

However, if your part is white or transparent, the molding price will be higher than other regular colors. A cleaner molding condition adds cost for molding factories.

Mold life affects mainly the tooling cost. Prototype molds use regular steels such as P20 or 718H. For production molds at higher volume, hardened steel would be required, like NAK 80 or H13.

There are many factors that can affect the cost on making an mold and running molding production. Here we show you three examples how the various pricing might have. Please note that the price can vary depending on your parts size, weight and complexity.

The plastic molding material you selected will affect both tooling cost and piece pricing, which varies from different types of materials.