After a new product is designed, a lot of companies would be ready to develop the plastic injection mold for small-scale trial production, to see how the market will respond before making a decision on massive production. At this point, it will be of great importance to select a proper plastic mold manufacturer. Personally, I’ve been working in the mold making industry for many years, and have known no less than 100 mold manufacturers, big or small. In this article, I am going to sum up my years of understanding and experience in the profession and would be happy to share it with all of you.

（1）Which type of mold manufacturer is a better choice for cooperation?

Currently, there is a diversity of mold manufacturers available in the China market, including foreign-funded companies, Taiwan invested firms, Hong Kong enterprises, and domestic ones. The pros and cons comparison between each type of mold makers are stated as below:

Foreign-funded mold manufacturers are characterized by standardized management, robust processes, strong service awareness, as well as assured quality and service, but their overhead costs and selling expenses are pretty high, meaning that mold development charge will be accordingly higher. If you have a strong financial capacity and would like to seek a company that is able to provide assured product quality, a large size foreign-funded mold manufacturer will be your choice of cooperator! However, in practice, large sized foreign-funded companies often have regular clients, so their prices will often be in line with the international market, which is not easy for many enterprises to accept. A set of large precision automotive mold usually costs hundreds of thousands or even millions dollar – the direct cause that discourages many buyers.
Chinese privately owned mold manufacturers are mostly established by the first batch foreign enterprise employees who first accessed the mold industry. Dubbed up-and-coming stars, one of the biggest inherent advantages of such enterprises is the relatively low material, overhead and selling costs. The mold and product prices they offer are definitely lower than those of foreign, Taiwan and Hong Kong mold manufacturer, so they are always able to attract the attention of a large number of mold buyers.

（2）What size mold manufacturer is a good choice for cooperation?

Large, medium or small sized mold manufacturer?

Personally, I think the choice in this regard is dependent on the circumstances. From the perspective of factory size, everyone will preferentially choose the largest one, because the large ones are usually fully equipped and thus more competent! Potentially, their sizes also reflect the level of customer’s choice. But, on the other hand, the larger the size, the higher the overhead costs will be, so the price will not be as competitive. In particular, the prices offered by large-sized foreign-funded mold manufacturers are literally unacceptable for most buyers. It is of critical importance that whether the mold manufacturer you select treat you as a VIP, i.e. whether they respect you. As a matter of fact, looking for a supplier is like choosing a partner, a suitable match is required. If your company does not have a strong financial capacity and your purchase volume is not big enough, looking for cooperation with large-sized mold manufacturers will only lead to the result that you are not respectfully treated despite the money you spend because you are not able to meet their requirements, be it order amount or volume. That is to say, they cannot benefit from your orders.

Under such circumstances, most people will choose SMEs. As a matter of fact, it is now a common practice in the industry, after all the mold and product prices appear to be more acceptable. However, you will soon find other concerns arising – can the mold be produced punctually with assured quality, how will the mold perform in the process of mass production and what is the life cycle of the mold? At this point, I would suggest you pay attention to the general knowledge that you have to select a fully equipped mold manufacturer, i.e. it has to be equipped with supporting precision CNC machines, slow wire cut machines, EDM, high-speed high-precision injection machine and 3D/2D measuring instruments that are necessary for mold processing, production, and testing. This is the point that should be taken as the key element for inspection, evaluation and final selection of a mold manufacturer.

(3)Meet mold manufacturer face to face, or ask for some reference customers before place order.

When you search “China mold manufacturer “or” Chinese mold maker” in Google, you will get a lot of contacts from mold manufacturers in China, I suggest you send RFQs to 5 or more mold makers, then you can compare their price, they react speed, their professional support. Normally the mold manufacturer arranges an engineer or a sales who have the engineering background to contact you, it will be much better than a sales girl without any engineering experience. because mold making is a customize and professional service, mold experience will help a lot in communication and avoid misunderstanding in engineering. it will save lots of time and cost. when you decide to work with one mold manufacturer, I suggest to visit them on site, then you can check their facility and talk to them face to face. if time or budget is limited, then you can ask for some reference customers from your own country who are dealing with them, the people who live in the same country and culture are always more trustworthy.

Sositar mould is a professional plastic injection mold manufacturer in Shenzhen China. We have more than 100 customers all over the world. most of them come from European and US.

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