It can take some effort and time for you to establish a good relationship with your injection molder. The last thing you want to confront is the need to move your tool to another molder because the performance of your mold shop has not met expectations. That is why there are important details to consider when selecting an injection mold tooling provider.

Issues to Consider During the Selection Process

Many of the problems that customers have with injection mold shops fall into the following categories:

  • The molder does not respond to your emails or calls or communicate problems in a proactive manner.
  • The quality of the parts does not meet your standards or is inconsistent.
  • The shop does not meet your deadlines.

When selecting a tooling provider, you should consider how they respond to your questions about these topics. For example, you can ask them what experience they have molding with the type of plastic your part requires. Some plastics, such as glass-filled nylon, require different parameters than basic ABS. Find out how they handle problems like short-shots or excess flash on parts. What happens if the tool appears to have a problem – do they try to fix it or call in a tool expert? What is their process for communicating schedule plans, and how much flexibility do they have for unexpected urgent needs? Do they have multiple presses that can handle a tool of your size, and do they have a sister company or nearby competitor that could help if their only machine fails?

Reputation and Customer Base

Use your industry contacts to find the names of the most reliable molding shops. Make sure the injection molding shops you are considering have experience with your type of tool. Learn whether the shops service other customers in your industry. If you are going to run a prototype tool, make sure they have experience with low-volume, short-term production. If you have a production tool that does not need to be run in high volumes and is used only a few times a year, ask them about their tool storage procedures.

Moving to a New Prototype Tooling Supplier

If the relationship with your current molding supplier is not going as expected, and if you are not able to resolve the issues to get the quality and timeliness your project requires, you may need to select a new prototype tooling supplier and move your molds. The new molder will need information on the parts, molding specifications, materials, and quality requirements. With this information, they can help facilitate the move and get your tool running quickly.

Choose the Best Prototype Injection Mold Tooling Provider

While many of these details can be overwhelming, the provider you select for injection molding can make the process easy. At Global Technology Ventures, Inc, we will do everything that we can to simplify and streamline the process by asking the questions that you may not have considered and finding the best solution for your tooling needs. If you want to know about how we can help you with prototype injection mold tooling, contact us today.