Different production volumes are also an essential factor in the cost of injection molding. Moreover, the production volume influences the amount of raw material used in injection molding, required machine sophistication, and injection mold properties such as durability, strength, and other properties. Here are the typical types of production volume injection molding:
Low-Volume Injection Molding Production
Low-volume plastic molding includes any production of parts between a hundred to a couple of thousand. Manufacturers often make the molds in-house and perform the molding themselves without necessarily using sophisticated machines. Hence, manufacturers produce molds of 3D-printed polymer resin or fast rapid tooling since it is affordable and doesn’t require a long production cycle.
The complete production run for low-volume molding usually takes precisely three days to create the finished parts. For instance, let’s assume the following parameters for a 100 – 200 part run:
- Number of parts: 100 – 1,000
- Cost of the mold: $100 – $1,000
- Cost of Raw Material per Part: $0.5
- Total Cost of Materials: $50 – $500
- Labor Cost per Part: $3 – $30
- Total Labor Cost: $300 -$3,000
- Total Cost of Injection Molded Process: $450 – $4,500
- Cost per Part: $4.5
Mid-Volume Injection Molding Production
Mid-volume quantities in injection molding often range between five thousand to tens of thousands of molded parts. This production type requires mold made from pre-hardened steel or aluminum. You can outsource the mold production and molding procedures for this production scale.
However, let’s assume the following injection molding cost calculation for a 5,000 – 10,000 unit volume. These are the same parts made using thermoplastic materials such as polypropylene.
- Number of parts: 5,000 – 10,000
- Cost of the mold: $2,500 – $5,000
- Cost of Raw Material per Part: $0.5
- Total Cost of Materials: $2,500 – $5,000
- Labor Cost per Part: $2
- Total Labor Cost: $10,000 – $20,000
- Total Cost of Injection Molded Process: $15,000 – $ 30,000
- Cost per Part: $3
High-Volume Injection Molding Production
High-volume injection mold production involves a few hundreds of thousands of molded parts. This procedure often requires steel molds due to their long life expectancy. Likewise, large-volume projects require a sophisticated machine, which adds to the injection molding cost. However, high-volume production offers higher cost distribution per part, ensuring lower cost per part.
For instance, let’s assume we are molding 100,000 to 300,000 parts of the same type using ABS.
- Number of parts: 100,000 – 300,000
- Cost of the mold: $25,000 – $75,000
- Cost of Raw Material per Part: $ 0.5
- Total Cost of Materials: $50, 000 – $150,000
- Labor Cost per Part: $ 1
- Total Labor Cost: $100,000 – $300,000
- Total Cost of Injection Molded Process: $175,000 – $525,000
- Cost per Part: $1.75
However, it is evident that the injection molding price per part reduces considerably for high-volume production. Hence, high-volume projects offer the best cost advantage for injection molding costs.
