Monitoring costs: Despite the reliance on automation, equipment operators are expected to monitor the progress of the injection molding process. Operator wages accrued during the process are added to the total cost of injection molding.

Production of plastic instruments and devices for hospitals, physicians, medical labs, and research facilities around the globe must follow stringent quality and hygienic requirements. To meet these, our product development relies on our technical expertise, state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, detailed regulatory knowledge, and a high degree of automation. Medical components we manufacture include injection-molded optical parts, disposable products, home diagnostics, general health-care products, and more. Clean room injection molding is also available.

In this guide, we provide an extensive breakdown of the different factors that make up the total injection molding cost.

Our expertise for simultaneously developing the product and the mold makes us an ideal partner for the design and manufacture of plastic components and systems for the electronics market, which continuously demands increased exterior aesthetics alongside increased internal sophistication. Our focus in these applications includes technical housings, frames and supports, and electromagnetic components.

Normally, the main cost driver in injection molding is the cost of the mold, also known as the tooling cost. The cost of designing and building a mold depends on the required production volume, the complexity of the part design, mold material, and the process used to create the mold.

Large industrial injection molding machines can cost anywhere from $50,000 to $200,000+. These machines also come with more stringent facility requirements and require skilled labor for operation, maintenance, and monitoring. As a result, unless injection molding is a core competence, most enterprises outsource mass production to service providers and contract manufacturers, in which case the equipment costs are included in the service costs.

Setup/configuration cost: The setup labor focuses on the time taken to configure the utilized equipment to produce the mold and the finished product.

The three scenarios in the table show the methods and the mold types that result in the lowest cost per part depending on the production volume.

Mitsubishi Chemical Group provides large engineering support activities for companies active in Beverage, Personal, and Home Care. We are a collaborative partner, not just responding to our customers’ immediate needs, but helping to develop innovative and tailored solutions across a product range, enabling long-term value.

Since the inception of our injection molding program in 1933, the Mitsubishi Chemical Group has continuously developed our technologies, knowledge, and capabilities in this field to produce injection-molded parts that deliver unmatched performance and cost-savings to customers.

It is important to note that a majority of the injection molding process is dedicated to cooling. The quicker a mold cools down the faster the injected material solidifies and the faster the production cycle can be repeated. Thus, cooling channels play an important role, especially for high-volume production, and should be included in the design of the mold. For low-volume production with 3D printed molds, manual cooling using compressed air is an option.

As part of our state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, Mitsubishi Chemical Group operates a 600m2 certified Class 100,000 (ISO 8) cleanroom. This enables the company to comply with the highest industrial standards current in medical technology and other industries where compliance stringent hygiene requirements is essential.

Stay updated with the latest 3D printing news, interviews with experts from around the world and tutorials on how to leverage 3D printing.

3D printing: 3D printing is a powerful solution to fabricate injection molds rapidly and at a low cost. It requires very limited equipment, saving CNC time and skilled operators for other high-value tasks in the meantime. Manufacturers can benefit from the speed and flexibility of in-house 3D printing to create molds that can be used on both desktop and industrial molding machines. Furthermore, product development benefits from the ability to iterate on the design and test the end-use material before investing in hard tooling for mass production. Stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing technology is a great choice for injection molding. It is characterized by a smooth surface finish and high precision that the mold will transfer to the final part and that also facilitates demolding. 3D prints produced by stereolithography are chemically bonded such that they are fully dense and isotropic. Desktop SLA printers, like those offered by Formlabs, start below $5,000 and can seamlessly be integrated into any injection molding workflow as they are easy to implement, operate, and maintain.

To enable cost-efficiency and the highest quality for our customers, Mitsubishi Chemical Group integrates a high level of automation into our injection molding processes. This automation, implemented primarily in assembly, quality assurance, and packaging, eliminates human errors and enables consistency that leads to “zero defects.” Upstream, automation is also applied to resin material handling and other post-molding operations like packaging and transporting final goods.

In this video, we've partnered with injection molding service provider Multiplus to walk you through the steps of the injection molding process using 3D printed molds.

Production volume: The number of items to be produced using injection molding determines the production technology and the quality of material to use when creating the mold. Low volume projects might require 3D printed or lower-grade machined aluminum molds, while large production volumes will require high-grade steel molds or even multiple molds to manage the process without wear and tear affecting the quality of produced items. This affects the cost of the mold, but of course, the increased cost of high volume molds is distributed among more parts, which normally leads to a lower per part cost.

The cost of the mold is largely defined by the complexity and the amount of time it takes to produce it. We advise adhering to design for manufacturing principles to drive down part costs with injection molding.

Injection molding is one of the leading processes for manufacturing plastics. It is widely used for mass-producing identical parts with tight tolerances. It is a cost-effective and extremely repeatable technology that yields high-quality parts for large series production.

The productivity and service-life of a molded part has a direct correlation to the quality of the tools employed. Our high-quality, in-house mold-making capabilities boost production efficiency and ensure a seamless translation of design specs into molded parts. Our skilled engineers employ state-of-the-art mold making equipment to develop a range of high-quality tools, including multi-cavity molds, hot-runners, insert- and overmolding systems, improving part longevity while also reducing time-to-market.

Use 3D printed injection molds with both benchtop and industrial machines to efficiently and affordably produce hundreds to thousands of functional prototypes, parts to accelerate product development, reduce costs and lead times, and bring better products to market.

Part volume and cavities: Part volume refers to the cavity size of a mold. The more cavities or cavity volume a mold requires the longer the press time. Increased press time slows down the production process which leads to increased cost.

Download our white paper for guidelines for using 3D printed molds in the injection molding process to lower costs and lead time and see real-life case studies with Braskem, Holimaker, and Novus Applications.

Our expertise for simultaneously developing the product and the mold makes us an ideal partner for the design and manufacture of plastic components and systems for the electronics market, which continuously demands increased exterior aesthetics alongside increased internal sophistication. Our focus in these applications includes technical housings, frames and supports, and electromagnetic components.

It is a fast, intensive process where high heat and pressure are involved to inject molten material inside a mold. The molten material depends on the scope of the manufacturing project. The most popular materials are various thermoplastics, such as ABS, PS, PE, PC, PP, or TPU, but metals and ceramics can be injection molded as well. The mold consists of a cavity that accommodates the injected molten material and is designed to closely mirror the final features of a part.

The equipment associated with injection molding is generally self-regulating and relies on automation to get the job done. CNC machines, EDM machines, and industrial 3D printers rely on the specifications of the CAD design to produce a mold. The injection molding machine also relies on automation to inject materials into the mold, and industrial IM machines often cool and eject the finished item autonomously.

The short answer: plastic injection molds cost anywhere between $100 for a 3D printed low-volume injection mold to $100,000+ for a complex multi-cavity steel mold for high-volume production, which generally represents the most significant fixed start-up cost in injection molding. However, as these costs get distributed among hundreds or thousands of parts, injection molding is an ideal process to mass-produce plastic parts affordably.

Where many engineering plastics on the market are only available in stock shapes, our extensive product offering enables injection molding for the majority of our portfolio of engineering materials. These include our general engineering plastics (PA, PP, POM) as well as our Ertalyte® PET-P and Techtron® PPS materials. For especially demanding applications requiring extreme mechanical strength, this offering extends to our suite of advanced composites and thermoplastics, including KyronMAX® carbon fiber composites, Duratron® PAI and PEI, and Ketron® PEEK.

Access our leading portfolio of composite and plastic injection molding materials, end-to-end mold design support, and state-of-the-art prototyping and testing technologies.

Developing more complex molds requires technical expertise. As a result, enterprises often outsource specific aspects of the injection molding process such as the design and fabrication of the mold.

Online injection molding cost estimators or quotes from injection molding service providers can provide benchmarks and help you estimate the cost of injection molding specific parts.

Tooling costs for injection molding are very high and depend on a number of parameters and design complexity. Molds for injection molding are normally CNC machined out of aluminum or tool steel, EDM machined to shape a workpiece, or 3D printed. The machined or printed part is then finished to achieve the desired standard. The finished mold consists of features such as the surface geometries needed for a part, a runner system to guide the flow of injected materials, and cooling channels to ensure the mold cools down quickly.

* Equipment costs are not calculated into the production costs in this example as the cost of these tools can be distributed among multiple projects. Purchasing a desktop injection molding machine and an SLA 3D printer allows businesses to get started with injection molding for less than $10,000.

A wide variety of plastics can be used for injection molding depending on the requirements of the final parts, including ABS, PS, PE, PC, PP, or TPU.

Simple low-volume 3D printed molds can be produced on an (SLA) resin 3D printer for as little as $100. An aluminum mold for a mid-volume production run of approximately 1,000-5,000 units falls within the range of $2,000 to $5,000. For molds with more complex geometries and primed for larger production runs of approximately 10,000+ units, the cost of mold can range from $5,000 to $100,000.

Mitsubishi Chemical Group has extensive expertise in product design and years of experience developing our broad portfolio of engineering and high-performance plastics. In industrial applications, our advanced thermoplastic components meet the highest performance standards, with reliable load-bearing capacity, high temperature resistance, and other critical properties

Tielt, Belgium (16,600 m2 - approx. 168,000 ft2) This production facility specializes in CAD, mold-making, tool repair and maintenance, prototyping, injection-molding, testing, secondary operations (assembly, printing, painting and sterilizing), logistics, and shipping, as well as in-house tool development.

In this white paper, learn how to combine rapid tooling with traditional manufacturing processes like injection molding, thermoforming, or casting.

Evaluate the CAD model to determine its feasibility before undertaking an injection molding project. Eliminate potential bottlenecks such as steep angles, undercuts, and other complex geometries.

While injection molding is traditionally considered a manufacturing process only for mass production due to its high tooling costs, leveraging 3D printing to fabricate injection molds empower you to use this process to produce high-quality and repeatable parts for prototyping and low-volume production.

Special-purpose machines are used for injection molding that can range from smaller desktop injection molding machines that businesses can use in-house to large industrial injection molding machines that are mostly operated by service providers, contract manufacturers, and large manufacturers.

Producing low volumes of parts with injection molding is the most cost-effective with smaller desktop injection molding machines and 3D printed molds. If you are new to injection molding and are looking into testing it with limited investment, using a benchtop manual injection molding machine such as the Holipress or the Galomb Model-B100 could be a good option. Automated small-scale injection molding equipment such as the desktop machine Micromolder or the hydraulic machine Babyplast 10/12 are good alternatives for medium-series production of small parts.

Electrical discharge machining (EDM): The EDM method is generally used to create highly complex mold designs that cannot be easily reproduced using standard machining methods. EDM involves the use of a workpiece and a tool electrode to create the desired mold shape. The tool electrode and workpiece electrode are separated by a dielectric fluid and subjected to voltages that cause recurring current discharges. The discharges are responsible for shaping the workpiece electrode into the final mold. EDM is highly accurate and does not generally require any additional post-processing. Similar to CNC machining, EDM is also an industrial process that many companies outsource to machine shops.

Material cost is defined by a model’s design, the material chosen, and the amount of material used to execute the injection molding process.

We are an end-to-end partner in the production of injection-molded plastic components, providing expert support part design and mold design. Our design support services leverage a number of specialized technologies, including design for manufacturing (DFM), design for assembly (DFA), design for disassembly (DFD), as well as a range of computer-aided design tools.

Apply a core cavity approach that simplifies the design of Side B of a mold. The core cavity approach involves sinking the wall cavities into the mold base, thereby reducing the need to mold steep draft angles while improving surface finish.

CNC machining: CNC machines are the most commonly used tools for manufacturing aluminum and stainless steel molds with high precision levels. CNC machining removes material by a spinning tool and fixed part. Machining can produce molds where the cavity design is highly complex, but they might require multiple tool changes that can slow down the process, which means that costs increase in line with complexity. CNC machines are industrial tools that require a skilled workforce and a dedicated space, which means that many companies outsource mold production to service providers.

Our flexible SPRINT (Soluble Printed Injection Tooling) solutions allow us to develop functional injection-molded prototypes in a matter of days. These SPRINT prototypes exhibit high precision and quality, simplifying testing and reducing both the cost and lead time of mold-making. Additionally, Mitsubishi Chemical Group is the purveyor of a range of master tools in which the forming inserts can be replaced. This enables us to prototype different parts in the same mold housing, significantly reducing tooling costs and lead times, and even making it possible to cost-effectively produce small series injection-molded parts.

Our manufacturing process consists of the latest injection molding technologies. Techniques include multi-component molding, bi-injection, and retractable and transfer molding for integral or split moldings, which helps reduce the time and cost of product assembly. We have dedicated two- and three-K (component) molding capabilities at our sites in both Tielt (Belgium) and Budapest (Hungary).

Injection-molded components are critical in nature, demanding close collaboration between the manufacturer and supplier. As an end-to-end, vertically integrated partner, Mitsubishi Chemical Group provides early integration of the development and production processes, including design support and material selection guidance. Our injection molding services deliver leading components across industries, including automotive, medical, and electrical & electronics applications.

Szigetszentmiklós (Budapest), Hungary (6,600 m2 - approx. 71,000 ft2) Services at this production facility encompass injection-molding, tool repair and maintenance, testing, secondary operations, conditioning, logistics, and shipping.

Mitsubishi Chemical Group operates across two primary locations for our injection molding services, both capable of fully automated assembly for maximum quality and consistency. Our state-of-the-art equipment includes injection molding machines with clamping forces ranging from 30 to 800 metric tons, including several 2- and 3-component molding machines. These facilities also offer fast repair, service, and modification of tools on-site, ensuring ongoing availability of molds for production.

Mitsubishi Chemical Group develops components for several leading international suppliers in the automotive industry, with product development, production, and assembly aligned in a single, vertically-integrated source. Our high-precision, injection-molded parts ensure safety for electrical, under-the-bonnet, and interior applications.

Embrace the use of self-mating parts to reduce the need to create multiple molds when one universal mold can be used to achieve similar results.

For enterprises with the equipment and tools for injection molding, choosing to create molds in-house could be the least expensive option if the technical know-how is also available. If the tools needed for injection molding are not readily available, then outsourcing reduces the cost associated with developing a mold.

A molding cost comparison table also serves a similar purpose. Injection molding service providers use cost comparison tables to provide prospective customers with a rough estimate of the process.

The table below highlights the cost associated with injection molding a hypothetical plastic item, such as a small enclosure of an electronic device, which makes the cost dynamics of injection molding easier to understand:

Evaluate the model’s design to eliminate unnecessary features. This reduces the mold’s size and the material used to develop the model.

Injection molded components interface with the rest of the end-product in complex ways. Not only must they fulfill high performance and functionality standards, but they also have a strong influence on user perception.

Mid-volume production is the most efficient with machined aluminum molds that have a lower cost than traditional steel mold, but are durable enough to last a few thousand shots, depending on factors like the material and the design. In most cases, low-volume injection molding is only reasonable with 3D printed molds—in our example, if we were to use an aluminum mold to produce 100 parts, its cost would account for $30 for each part, while a traditional steel mold would mean $200 for each part.

Repair cost: Repair and maintenance tasks involve the replacement of defective parts and the use of tools to execute the maintenance process.

When producing in-house, these costs are calculated into the labor costs. When a business outsources injection molding, the labor and the markup of the service provider are added to the service cost.

In general, injection molding is the most efficient at higher volumes, as the costs then get distributed among thousands of parts. But even though the cost per part for low-volume injection molding is slightly higher, it is still substantially more affordable for low-volume production than other manufacturing methods.

This white paper showcases the cost-dynamics for real-life use cases, and presents guidelines for using SLS 3D printing, injection molding, or both.

Understanding the different types of costs associated with injection molding requires an in-depth analysis of the process.

Mitsubishi Chemical Group develops components for several leading international suppliers in the automotive industry, with product development, production, and assembly aligned in a single, vertically-integrated source. Our high-precision, injection-molded parts ensure safety for electrical, under-the-bonnet, and interior applications.

Part design: Complex part designs with intricate geometries require complex molds to execute the project. Mold designs usually have 2 sides: sides A and B. Side A, also known as the cosmetic side, is usually the side seen by the user. Side A is expected to be smooth and aesthetically pleasing. Side B contains the hidden structures that support the usage of the part. Side B structure may include ribs, bosses, etc., and its finish is usually much rougher than that of Side A. Molds with complex Side A and Side B designs are generally more expensive to fabricate compared to simpler molds. Complex designs that feature undercuts might also require sliding side-actions and cores, increasing the cost of the mold.

Production of plastic instruments and devices for hospitals, physicians, medical labs, and research facilities around the globe must follow stringent quality and hygienic requirements. To meet these, our product development relies on our technical expertise, state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, detailed regulatory knowledge, and a high degree of automation. Medical components we manufacture include injection-molded optical parts, disposable products, home diagnostics, general health-care products, and more. Clean room injection molding is also available.

In this webinar, we'll show you how to use stereolithography (SLA) 3D printed molds in the injection molding process to lower costs, reduce lead times, and bring better products to market.

Mitsubishi Chemical Group has extensive expertise in product design and years of experience developing our broad portfolio of engineering and high-performance plastics. In industrial applications, our advanced thermoplastic components meet the highest performance standards, with reliable load-bearing capacity, high temperature resistance, and other critical properties

The cost of purchasing materials for molds differs according to the material chosen. Thermoplastic pellets cost approximately $1 to $5 per kg.

Our technical services teams work closely with customers to develop an insider understanding of their part performance and budget specifications, helping them to choose the optimal injection-moldable plastic or composite from our comprehensive portfolio.

From automotive to medical to electronics applications, the Advanced Materials division of Mitsubishi Chemical Group designs, tests, and produces injection-molded components for use in function-critical systems.

Simple low-volume 3D printed molds can cost as little as $100, while the cost of designing and manufacturing complex molds for high-volume production may hit the $100,000 mark. Despite the considerable fixed start-up costs, the injection molding process has low variable costs due to the inexpensive thermoplastics materials, short cycle times, and the labor needs decrease progressively due to automation and economies of scale. This means that the variable costs of production are low and the process becomes more efficient and the cost per part decreases at higher volumes as the costs get distributed among hundreds or thousands of parts.

Part size: The larger the item or part to be molded, the larger its mold will be to accommodate the part. Larger parts tend to require more injected materials to complete production cycles. Larger mold designs usually come at an increased cost compared to fabricating the same design but with smaller dimensions.

Mitsubishi Chemical Group provides large engineering support activities for companies active in Beverage, Personal, and Home Care. We are a collaborative partner, not just responding to our customers’ immediate needs, but helping to develop innovative and tailored solutions across a product range, enabling long-term value.