Tooling and molds for plastic injection molding
At Rebling Plastics, we concentrate our efforts on design and processing. That is why we use local and overseas toolmakers to manufacture molds for plastic injection molding. While having a full in-house mold making shop used to be standard practice for molders, we believe that having a few key suppliers is a much more efficient way to serve our customers.
By outsourcing the construction of our molds, Rebling Plastics can focus on processing and maintaining modern up to date process equipment. Using several proven and reliable mold manufacturing suppliers ensures that the mold is delivered on time by avoiding the bottleneck of pushing everything through a single shop.
Prior to the start of mold construction, a detailed list of the mold requirements is generated by Rebling Plastics and reviewed with the mold maker. The mold maker and Rebling Plastics then prepare an agreed upon mold build schedule showing major milestones and anticipated completion dates consistent with the delivery requirements promised to our customer. This schedule is updated bi-weekly and forwarded to the customer so that they can see the progress of the mold construction.
A detailed drawing of the mold is then submitted by the tool designer for review and approval by Rebling Plastics prior to the start of mold construction.
For repairs and maintenance, we do the small jobs in-house (cleaning, small repairs, etc.). If more substantial maintenance is needed, we call a local toolmaker who picks the mold up the same day for quick delivery. This way, we keep all the advantages of an in-house tool shop, but without the inefficiencies.
Advantages and disadvantages
of tooling made overseas
We at Rebling Plastics feel that using both
local and international toolmakers enables us
to meet the budget and delivery needs of our customers.
Many companies have found that plastic injection
molding parts overseas is not cost effective.
The shipping costs as well as the delivery delays
through customs make it worthwhile to do the actual
molding in the US. However, we have found that
manufacturing the molds overseas has advantages
and disadvantages.
The biggest advantage of making molds overseas is cost. Typically, these tools are ¼ to ½ the price of US toolmakers. After a long search, we have found a source that delivers molds that are equal in quality to our domestic sources.
One of the major disadvantages is the lack of availability of specialty plastic injection molding materials. Shipping material half way around the world can be expensive. Also, molds shipped by sea take 6-8 weeks to deliver after approval of plastic injection molded samples. Air freight can significantly reduce this delivery time, but can be prohibitively expensive, especially with large molds. To overcome this problem, we can have the first 8 weeks of production run at the mold manufacturer’s facility.
Involvement in Tool Design
While we do not build our own molds, we are very involved in the design. When we begin a new job, we send mold specification sheets that include mold materials, sizes, mounting configurations, ejection method, gating method, heating/cooling, and special features. All tooling drawings are carefully reviewed by our engineering team before any steel is cut. Our molding manager spent 27 years building molds and owned his own mold shop for 13 years before joining Rebling Plastics. We use that experience to ensure a mold design that we can guarantee for several hundred thousand cycles.
Before finalizing any plastic part design, we recommend contacting one of our engineers to assist in designing the part for manufacturing. This step can save tooling and material costs, as well as prevent quality problems down the road.
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