Injection moulding
Plastic parts, from ten to ten thousand
The same part, two ways to make it. A small batch is 3D printed and shipped in days with no tooling cost. A large batch goes on an injection mould we design and run, for the lowest price per part and production-grade material.
Pick by quantity
How many do you need?
Tooling is what decides it. Below a couple of hundred pieces, a mould costs more than the parts; above that, it pays for itself many times over.
1 to 200 pcs
3D printed, no tooling
- Parts in 2 to 5 working days
- Resin for detail and finish, FDM for size and cost
- Change the design between batches for free
- CNC finishing where a feature has to fit
Best for prototypes, pilot runs, spares, and parts that are still changing.
Price it in the quote tool Large batch200 to 10,000+
Injection moulded
- Aluminium or steel mould, made to your drawing
- Production plastics: ABS, PC, PP, PA, POM, TPU, ESD grades
- Consistent parts, moulded finish, colour to spec
- Lowest price per part once the mould is paid
Best for a part whose design is final and will be ordered again and again.
How moulding works with usNot sure which side of the line you are on? Send the part and the yearly quantity and we will price both, so you can see where the crossover is for your part. Many customers start printed and move to a mould once the design has settled.
Side by side
Printed or moulded
The trade-off in one table. The crossover quantity depends on the part; typically somewhere between 100 and 500 pieces.
| 3D printed | Injection moulded | |
|---|---|---|
| Tooling cost | None | One-off mould, from a few thousand RM upward |
| Price per part | Flat, from the first piece | Low once the mould is paid off |
| First parts | 2 to 5 working days | 3 to 6 weeks (mould), then days |
| Design changes | Free, any time | Mould modification, sometimes a new mould |
| Materials | Resins, PLA, PETG, ABS, ESD grades | Any production thermoplastic, glass-filled, flame-retardant, ESD |
| Surface | Layer lines or sanded resin finish | Moulded finish, polished or textured to spec |
| Strength | Good; layer direction matters on FDM | Full material strength, isotropic |
| Sweet spot | 1 to 200 pieces | 200 to 100,000 pieces |
Large batch
How moulding works with us
One point of contact from the first drawing to the last carton. We review the design for moulding, design and make the tool, sample it, and run production.
Design review
We check the part for draft, wall thickness, undercuts and gate position, and tell you what to change before any steel is cut. Often we print a few first, so you hold the part before committing to a mould.
Mould design and build
Aluminium tooling for a few thousand parts, P20 or H13 steel for higher volumes. Single or multi-cavity to suit the yearly quantity. 3 to 6 weeks.
T1 samples
First-off parts measured against the drawing and sent to you for approval. Texture, colour and any tweaks are settled here.
Production and repeat orders
Parts moulded, inspected and packed. The mould is stored for you, so a repeat order is just the parts.
- To quote a mould
- STEP file, 2D drawing, material, colour, surface finish, yearly quantity
- Typical lead time
- 3 to 6 weeks to first samples, then 1 to 2 weeks per production run
- Mould ownership
- The mould is yours; we store and maintain it for as long as you order from it
Which materials?
Commodity and engineering thermoplastics: ABS, PC, PC/ABS, PP, PE, PA6 and PA66 (including glass-filled), POM, PBT, TPU and TPE. Static-dissipative and flame-retardant grades for electronics and semiconductor use. If you have a specific grade on the drawing, we mould that.
Where moulding pays off
Enclosures, handling trays, clips, covers, cable guides and any part that ships in every unit you build. The mould is a one-off cost; from then on each part costs a fraction of a print.
Where it does not
Parts still changing, one-off fixtures, or anything under about a hundred pieces a year. For those, 3D printing is faster and cheaper, and we will say so.
Start printed, finish moulded
The usual path: prototype and pilot batches printed while the design settles, then a mould for production. Same file, same supplier, no re-quoting from scratch.
Ready to talk quantities?
Send the STEP file and how many you need a year. Small batches are priced instantly in the quote tool; moulds are priced by hand within two working days.