Thermoplastic mold Tooling VS Silicone tooling LEAD TIME

[ExtenF Innovations]

Using a Chinese manufacturer, I originally ordered a 4 cavity mold for my product that we thought could be made using silicone.

We later realized that TPR would work better for this particular product. The manufacturer provided me a new quote and said that they'll have to use a TPR mold with only 1 cavity instead.

He said that TPR mold would also cost a few hundred dollars more.

The original silicone mold tooling lead time was 10-12 days; however, they're now telling me the lead time for the TPR mold tooling will be around 30 days.

How does a smaller mold with less cavities take longer to make?

My question is, do TPR molds take twice as long to make? If so, why?

I want to figure out whether this is the norm or the manufacturer is putting me on the back burner.

Thanks

[roger]

It seems to me that they made the silicone molded parts with low pressure, using a vertical mold.. and the NEW TPR mold with high pressure injection molding. maybe verify it with your supplier.

kind regards Roger of mouldplastic (http://www.mouldplastic.org)