Unless the product has a very specific construction usually a quotation for a mold is send the next day after we receive enquiry with all the necessary details.
If you feel uncomfortable about protection of your idea, we can sign a non-disclosure agreement before you send us any data.
To make a quotation, which will be adequate and sufficiently competitive, we need 3 things:
1. Product drawing or 3D model data file or product sample. If none of these are available, we need at least an ordinary sketch with the most critical dimensions of the product on it.
2. What Kind of plastic resin you are going to use in manufacturing or an idea of the durability of the product (what the product is or does).
3. Estimated quantity of the product needed in a period of time (i.e. one month) and the idea of how many products in total you are going to make (estimated total sales).
It varies a little depending on product size and complexity of its shape, but generally in case of DML, a middle size molds are built in 30 days lead time.
DML's mold building lead-time does not belong to the lengthy ones. On special request from clients and depending on our work load it is some times possible to make mold faster though the advancement cannot be big, just a few days.
On client’s requests we are giving a detailed mold-building schedule and send weekly reports. The reports may have digital pictures that show the progress of work.
Mold life depends the most on the kind of tooling steel used, the precision of mold building and mold maintenance quality during production. Usually plastic injection molds can stand without a problem 250 thousand shots and die casting molds 70 thousand shots. The life expectancy can be lengthened or shortened by choosing appropriate for it kind of steel. DML Mold is always guarantying its molds life.
If there is a problem that has to be serviced under the warranty obligation, DML Mold is dispatching its engineers who can make necessary corrections or repairs. If a change has to be done to the mold on customer’s request, the necessary preparations are done in DML Mold's factory and depending on circumstances either the necessary parts are sending to the customer and changed by him or DML Mold can dispatch its technicians. And we will offer all the electrodes and one set of damageable spare parts for free.
Majority of mold cost are materials and machining costs. What follows is that the product’s structure, materials used, number of cavities, and mold size influences the price of the most. The cost can start from a few thousand to more than 100 thousand USD. We can only make a quotation unless we know all of those mentioned. For this reason DML Mold provides a detailed calculation of all the costs on quoting. We have specialists in making quotation, and they have 20 yeas of experience on mold design and mold making.
Usually we accept standard payment conditions - that is: 40% of deposit, 30% on mold trials and 30% on mold delivery. The conditions may be however adjusted, particularly in case of bigger contracts. The preferable forms of payment are wire transfers and letters of credit. Very often we use a combination of those.
Using the facilities we have we can make molds of various sizes up to 15 tons in weight, also for small, precision parts. Our policy is trying our best to fit the customers’ requests.
Changes can usually always be made. However, it is best that you try to anticipate any changes that may occur so that appropriate accommodations can be made for them in the mold ahead of time.
We have specialists who are very professional in part design. They can design the drawings of the product according your ideals.
If you feel uncomfortable about protection of your idea, we can sign a non-disclosure agreement before you send us any data.
The best solution to have a mold repaired is to order it in the tool shop where it was manufactured. It happens very rarely, but we also repair molds made by others.