Plastic Injection Moulding, advise please

[Mark]

Could not find a suitable newsgroup on offer in the ones available to
me, but please feel free to advise me of a better one.

I need to have made, some plastic (Nylon) cases, for a bouncy castle
blower I am helping to design. The item will be a fairly large item,
measuring some 45X45X35 cm. There are several parts to the blower, and
I need an idea of how I go about initiating the design. We have a
competitors product which we would like to imitate the best parts of,
but we are new to having plastic products made. I have sourced a
suitable motor and impeller (Taiwan), we now need to source the
plastic housing the whole thing goes into. The end product needs to be
made of a fairly rigid, but not brittle, plastic. The plastic assembly
is made up of four parts 2X2, which each of the two parts need to be
"welded" together, and the subsequent two sub-assemblies screwed
together. We are about to have produced, AutoCAD drawings of the
product we are trying to imitate, but the first question raised is, do
we want 1 Dimensional AutoCAD drawings made, or 3D ones made. What is
the best format for presenting to injection moulding companies, for
them to quote on?

We are looking to China etc to have this product made for us, does
anybody have suggestions on how to work with the Chinese in these
sorts of situations? somebody said that we must have an agent working
for us over there, any ideas on this? we are most probably able to
afford up front, 500 or 1000 pieces in the first instance, is this a
sensible figure, to get the best price? anybody have any companies
they would like to recommend over there? Any suggestions?

[email protected] (remove the X to reply)

 

[Joerg]

Hello Mark,

... What is
the best format for presenting to injection moulding companies, for
them to quote on?

You'd have to ask them. Maybe this helps:
http://www.chinaforge.com/faq/

I don't know this company but since you want to produce in China it
might still be good to have the key contact in the US.

We are looking to China etc to have this product made for us, does
anybody have suggestions on how to work with the Chinese in these
sorts of situations? somebody said that we must have an agent working
for us over there, any ideas on this? we are most probably able to
afford up front, 500 or 1000 pieces in the first instance, is this a
sensible figure, to get the best price? anybody have any companies
they would like to recommend over there? Any suggestions?

It depends how complicated it is. If the molds have to be made as well
be prepared for a hefty NRE. Or a higher qty order. Molds that we were
involved in (not too complicated) usually ran north of $20k.

Be careful with copying other mfg's designs. It might not be legal to do so.

Regards, Joerg

 

[Roger Hamlett]

Could not find a suitable newsgroup on offer in the ones available to
me, but please feel free to advise me of a better one.

I need to have made, some plastic (Nylon) cases, for a bouncy castle
blower I am helping to design. The item will be a fairly large item,
measuring some 45X45X35 cm. There are several parts to the blower, and
I need an idea of how I go about initiating the design. We have a
competitors product which we would like to imitate the best parts of,
but we are new to having plastic products made. I have sourced a
suitable motor and impeller (Taiwan), we now need to source the
plastic housing the whole thing goes into. The end product needs to be
made of a fairly rigid, but not brittle, plastic. The plastic assembly
is made up of four parts 2X2, which each of the two parts need to be
"welded" together, and the subsequent two sub-assemblies screwed
together. We are about to have produced, AutoCAD drawings of the
product we are trying to imitate, but the first question raised is, do
we want 1 Dimensional AutoCAD drawings made, or 3D ones made. What is
the best format for presenting to injection moulding companies, for
them to quote on?

We are looking to China etc to have this product made for us, does
anybody have suggestions on how to work with the Chinese in these
sorts of situations? somebody said that we must have an agent working
for us over there, any ideas on this? we are most probably able to
afford up front, 500 or 1000 pieces in the first instance, is this a
sensible figure, to get the best price? anybody have any companies
they would like to recommend over there? Any suggestions?

[email protected] (remove the X to reply)

It is not a 'sensible figure' for injection moulding from China. 250000
units is more the sort of scale where they win!. Below 10000 off, you
won't even pay for the tool, relative to having the kit entirely produced
by plastic welding from ABS. At 1000 off, there are specialist companies
(in the UK at least), who do low pressure moulding, using short 'life'
dies, which are CNC produced, and will work directly from 3D drawings, to
make the dies. This sort of process is a lot cheaper for such short runs.

Best Wishes

 

[John Larkin]

Could not find a suitable newsgroup on offer in the ones available to
me, but please feel free to advise me of a better one.

I need to have made, some plastic (Nylon) cases, for a bouncy castle
blower I am helping to design. The item will be a fairly large item,
measuring some 45X45X35 cm. There are several parts to the blower, and
I need an idea of how I go about initiating the design. We have a
competitors product which we would like to imitate the best parts of,
but we are new to having plastic products made. I have sourced a
suitable motor and impeller (Taiwan), we now need to source the
plastic housing the whole thing goes into. The end product needs to be
made of a fairly rigid, but not brittle, plastic. The plastic assembly
is made up of four parts 2X2, which each of the two parts need to be
"welded" together, and the subsequent two sub-assemblies screwed
together. We are about to have produced, AutoCAD drawings of the
product we are trying to imitate, but the first question raised is, do
we want 1 Dimensional AutoCAD drawings made, or 3D ones made. What is
the best format for presenting to injection moulding companies, for
them to quote on?

We are looking to China etc to have this product made for us, does
anybody have suggestions on how to work with the Chinese in these
sorts of situations? somebody said that we must have an agent working
for us over there, any ideas on this? we are most probably able to
afford up front, 500 or 1000 pieces in the first instance, is this a
sensible figure, to get the best price? anybody have any companies
they would like to recommend over there? Any suggestions?

[email protected] (remove the X to reply)

Maybe the case could be vacuum formed. That's relatively cheap... the
mold tooling is plastic or wood!

John

 

[[email protected]]

we want 1 Dimensional AutoCAD drawings made, or 3D ones made. What is

the best format for presenting to injection moulding companies, for
them to quote on?

If it's being injection molded, then 3D Pro/E models will go straight
to CNC tooling.

 

[Richard H.]

I need to have made, some plastic (Nylon) cases, for a bouncy castle
blower I am helping to design.

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.arch.embedded/browse_thread/thread/502df74f4fffbd6f/

HTH,
Richard