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How to Calculate and

Save Costs of Injection
Molding
Dominykas Turčinskas
4 articles Follow
Commercial Manager at Micromolds

April 9, 2021

Open Immersive Reader

The paper was originally published at Micromolds website.

This paper is for those who really want to understand why

injection molding might be so expensive and how injection
molding companies deduct their service pricing. The
purpose of this piece is to take out the anxiety burden of
sales engineers to tell the project cost when unprofessional
RFQs are received, as well as an opposite side’s
inconvenience to tell or not to tell the budget of the
project.

What you will learn (an infographic

overview):

Starting with the basics

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It is assumed that the reader is fully familiar with the

common injection molding definitions and procedures. If
not hover on these topics:

What is injection molding?

Injection molding is a serial production technology where

molten thermoplastic pallets are injected in the molds.
Cooled plastic solidifies and when the mold opens it is
ejected as a brand new plastic part.

What is mold and tooling?

Tooling is the process of mold machining. Mold is a 3D

designed part ‘subtracted’ or carved out (milled) out of the
block of metal (usually steel or aluminum). It is obvious that
most of engineering know-how is condensed in this stage.
Mold making is the core of injection molding technology
and thus it has the biggest fraction of NRE cost.

What is cavity and core?

Since mold has two sides core and cavity take place in one
or another. They are used to shape the injected plastic. In
other words, the core forms the internal shape of the part
and the cavity - external. It is worth to mention that by
default cavity numbers can be distributed only in such a
way: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 48… This is because only than equal
runner distances are possible for equal pressure
distribution.

Disclaimer

This paper is used for understanding of the principle of

injection molding pricing calculation. The examples given
and calculations are simplified and may lack many factors
which can change the results drastically as each project
might have very unique parameters to include.
Nevertheless, the paper is more than enough to familiarize
customers with injection molding pricing method and is
prepared for customization according individual needs.

Heading to the optimum

Just by a single look to the above infographic it becomes

clear that estimating injection molding costs includes many
variables. How not to get lost in this pile of varying factors
and find the optimal solution for the buyer and seller – set
an equilibrium cost/price correctly for both parties
involved? As every mathematical problem or calculation

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should start with some reference point, this case is no other

and the process starts with input variables setting.

Project and machine constraints

In this particular case it is assumed that the client needs are

the starting point. The customer provides the RFQ where
the huge chain of processes starts to move and impact
each other. Ideally, reputable customer should provide his
sub-contractors with this information:

1. Production quantity interval

2. Lead time interval

3. Budget interval

4. Part CAD drawings

5. Material used specified

6. Tolerances specified

7. Surface finish specified

Budget. Really? (off-topic)

It seems that declaring budget interval might be the same

as loosing bargaining leverage. However, experienced
customers know that with complex projects, quotation
procedure can be considerably prolonged just by molding
company trying to provide budget A, B and C variants. For
example, the budget can drastically decrease by eliminating
automated inserts at the expense of a lead time or just by
increasing molding cavities number (discussed further). So
how the molding company should know what are the
contractor’s preferences and future plans?

Moreover, experienced customers always know the ranges

of pricing and can always head towards budgets with
buffers for bargaining. The point here is that, ideally, both
client and service provider should seek for professional and
transparent negotiations where quote is just a good
starting point. Transparency in pricing should guarantee
that project shareholders would seek for most efficient,
win-win manufacturing processes and goal completions but
not capital-only targets.

Three main input values (back to-topic)

Project constraints (information from the RFQ) let us

deduce 3 main input variables:

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Production quantity interval (e.g. 20k-50k pcs.)

Lead time interval (e.g. 1-2 months)

Project cost interval (e.g. 1000-5000 EUR)

It becomes intuitively clear that this initial input data should

initiate the whole injection molding cost/price calculation –
the molder has all information he needs: quantity, time and
price range. However, to provide customer with an optimal
quote, there is still one more important factor to evaluate.

Fourth main input value (molding cavity

calculation)

The other RFQ’s 3 input values (part drawing, material,

tolerances) are bounded by machine constraints and all
these intertwined dependencies contribute to the next very
important input estimation – quantity of mold cavities:

1. [Part drawings + material] -> [projected area

+ pressure] -> clamping force -> quantity of
cavities

A1 – projection area of 1 cavity and runner;

Fn – required clamping force for n cavities;

Fm – machine clamping force;

f – coefficient (deduced empirically);

Qn – cavity quantity (Qn = 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 48);

Qmax – max. cavity number limit bounded by the size of

machine.

Constraints:

Fn≤Fm;

1<Qn≤Qmax;

Qmax=16;

Solution:

Fn=PA1fQn => PA1fQn<Fm => Qn<Fm/PA1f;

Fm=60t;

1<Qn≤16;

Qn<60(t)/2(t/cm2)*3(cm2)*1;

1<Qn≤10;

Answer:

Qn=1, 2, 4, 8.
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2. Part drawings -> part volume -> shot size -> quantity
of cavities

V – part volume + runner volume

Vmax – max. shot volume

Qn – cavity quantity (Qn = 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 48)

Qmax – max. cavity number limit bounded by the size of

machine

Constraints:

QnV≤Vmax

1<Qn≤Qmax

Solution:

Qn<Vs/V

Vs=80cm3

Qn<80cm3/10cm3

1<Qn≤8

Answer:

Qn=1, 2, 4, 8.

3. Material -> plasticity -> quantity of cavities (e.g. 1-16)

Determined experimentally.

4. Tolerances -> quantity of cavities (e.g. 1-16)

Determined experimentally.

The answer is 1-8 cavities

Project constraints combined with machine constraints

determine the forth value interval - molding cavities
number. It should be clear that due to machine constraints
the maximum molding cavity number is the minimal limit
bounded by machine constraints (example above: 1-8).

Why this is so important? Molding cavities number

variation hugely affect budget of the project when
manufacturing volumes increase, thus varying these total 4
input values together with molding cavities results in an
optimal quote for the client.

Surface finish – last but not the least

Even though surface finish does not limit or affect cavity

number calculation it becomes extremely important when

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tooling costs are calculated (discussed further). It is very

important for the client to specify this as costs of tooling
can be affected by 10-30%.

Sum up

By using customer’s provided data and machine constraints

four main intervals of input variables were deduced:

Production quantity interval (e.g. 20k-50k pcs.)

Lead time interval (e.g. 1-2 months)

Project cost interval (e.g. 1000-5000EUR)

Molding cavities (e.g. 1-8)

As the clients’ RFQs might not always be so informative or

have even wider ranges to choose from it is the service
provider’s responsibility to find and suggest the optimal
quotation for the customer. To propose an optimal quote
within these ranges when so many variables take place is
not an easy task for injection molder.

Dependent, independent and

control values

NB! For the simplicity reasons, the lead time interval will be
not included in the calculations. It is assumed, that every
project is done as efficient as possible and at a full capacity
and thus the projects will be completed as fast as
manufacturing capacity can allow but no faster or longer
than the customer requires.

To put it simply, optimal in this case is that where minimum

value is found of a function of several variables subject to a
set of constraints. Yes, it’s going to be a graphical
representation. As the molding cavity parameter is the only
one which can vary it will be an independent variable (x-
axis). As the most important result we are looking for is a
project cost – it will be a dependent variable (y-axis) and for
control values the production quantity will be set.

Injection molding cost

Finally, the molding cost calculation and its relation to

production volume and cavity number will be revealed. To
do that, one should first understand that price of injection
molding itself contains several components:

Raw material costs

Mold manufacturing (tooling) costs

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Fixed machine operating costs

Other manufacturing costs (e.g. mold set up, post

production…)

These molding cost categories itself are also hugely

affected by the primary input values:

part drawings -> part difficulty -> tooling costs

material choice -> raw material costs

clamping force -> machine operating costs

surface finish -> tooling costs

etc.

For every complex task ‘one bite at a time’ approach is

always a good way to go. For better understanding please
study and use this excel calculator of injection molding
cost in parallel with this article:

Download Injection Molding Cost Calculator

Raw materials cost

Raw Material Cost vs. Cavities at Various Production Volumes

At first sight graph data looks intuitively misleading. More

cavities mean more material used, thus it appears that
curves should slightly slope upwards. But when looking
closer to the process of injection molding it becomes clear
that more cavities means less shots too. This data shows
that even though more cavities use more material, less
cycles use lesser material, so in overall result the material
used decreases when cavity number increases. Now it is a
matter of runners’ geometrical parameters – whether the
curves will be flattened or steepened.

Mold making cost

To understand the relation better you can download the

excel calculator with the graph above (sheet2):

Download Injection Molding Cost Calculator

Raw Material Cost vs. Cavities at Various Production Volumes

This linear relation of cavity number and mold cost seems

to be intuitively clear. The production volume does not
affect mold making price since molding itself does not
correlate with volume up to the mold life time. Tooling,
thus, is the minimal NRE cost to initiate the production at
all. To estimate the molding cost various input data is
needed:

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Fixed time to start (setting up the machine)

Raw material cost

Hourly machine and operators rate

Machine costs per hour (depreciation or/and leasing)

CAD design

Fixed time per cavity machined (empirical estimation)

Difficulty level (empirical estimation)

Surface finish

All these factors must be included to estimate the tooling

price for injection molding. To play with input values and
compare various prices use the excel calculator (sheet2).

Production costs (molding costs)

To understand the relation better you can download the

excel calculator with the graph above (sheet3):

Download Injection Molding Cost Calculator

Molding Cost vs. Cavities at Various Production Volumes

From the graph above it is possible to observe how hugely

cavity number impacts manufacturing costs. To get such
evaluation such input values were used:

Cycle time for 1 cavity

Prolonged cycle time per cavity (due to increase of

injected material volume)

Hourly machine op. rate

Machine cost per hour (depreciation or/and leasing)

Consumables and other costs per hour

It is worth to pay attention to the cycle time here. While

other input values more or less stay the same and are fixed
for any project, the cycle time plays the major role in
manufacturing costs. Thus it is very important to optimize
the manufacturing processes as well as the parts itself to
minimize the cycle time. To see how sensitive, the
manufacturing costs are to the cycle time use the
downloaded excel file (sheet3).

Final injection molding project costs

To understand the relation better you can download the

excel calculator above (sheet4):

Download Injection Molding Cost Calculator

Project Cost vs. Cavities at Various Production Volumes

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The total project cost very much resembles with the

manufacturing cost graph and raw material graph which is
obviously true as the cavity number affects those 3 values
the same. However, positively sloped tooling cost curve in a
long run forces the whole project cost to rise. It can be seen
that for larger manufacturing volumes the flexion points of
the curves shift to the right – the impact of rapid cost
reduction due to increasing cavity number remains longer
and this is because for small manufacturing volumes
tooling costs puts a larger burden.

Getting a quote - optimal injection

molding price

So in this case we had initial input values to start with

(neglecting a lead time):

Production quantity interval (e.g. 20k-50k pcs.)

Project cost interval (e.g. 1000-5000 EUR)

Molding cavities (e.g. 1-8)

Optimal Project Cost at Various Production Volumes

By using graph data and given input data, it is seen that

optimal project cost can vary in region marked in red at
various production quantities. However, it is also clear that
project budget is underestimated by ~1000EUR by the
client and the closest proposal to the given RFQ could be:

6000 EUR for 20000 pcs. with 4-8 cavities.

The range of 4-8 cavities is used because there is no need

to completely trust the data received. The project should be
evaluated holistically and the very small win with a cavity
number might not be worth it. Machining complex part
tools or unforeseen problems while machining them might
in reality become huge loss, thus some safety factor should
be used.

From the data above it can be seen that little does cost rise
for more cavities at small production volumes. This is a
perfect illustration of the power of injection molding in a
mass production and economy of scale.

Micromolding wins at small

quantities

From the discussion above it becomes clear that injection

molding is for large manufacturing volumes only.
Prototyping with injection molding becomes literally
impossible. The main barrier to enter injection molding
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world is high tooling costs which disappear only when

hundreads of thousands units are manufactured.

What if it would be possible to save hugely on tooling and

machine costs?

Micromolding is a branch of conventional molding used for

mass production of plastic parts. The main difference is that
it is used to mold parts which are just fractions of a gram.
However, micromolding technology can become useful
when producing at low volumes or prototyping, since the
molds used are small and made of aluminum. This reduces
tooling costs and duration by 2x for small plastic part
molding. Moreover, molding machines are small, thus
operating costs are low too. In this way low-volume
production and prototyping with injection molding
becomes possible at low budgets. If the part is small
enough to squeeze 4-8 cavities in the mold,
competitiveness of micromolding at mass production scale
matches the conventional molders.

The paper was originally published at Micromolds website.

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Dominykas Turčinskas
Commercial Manager at Micromolds 4 articles Follow
Published • 2y

Undoubtedly, #budget 💸 is the most relevant constraint of each project. However,

🕵️‍♂️
when it comes to the costs of #plasticinjectionmolding and understanding of the
whole complexity, a lot of miscommunication issues may arise. Take a look on the

💡
article below and download the #injectionmoldingcosts calculator to clear things out
for your next #injectionmolding project.

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Dominykas Turčinskas
Commercial Manager at Micromolds

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