Hi Everyone,

New to the forum! Im currently trying to plan a facility with a few injection moulding machines and trying to estimate costs. Ive designed lots of parts that were subcontracted before but never got into machine/tool purchasing so if anyone could help that would be great! Ill give some background

I have a number of parts to be made in approx. 15-20,000 units pa each. For now, lets say I have 3:
• Part A is like a go-kart seat only a little bigger, so say 700x400x400mm: a number of bosses and features
• Part B is like a big dish about 400x300x150mm: a number of bosses and features
• Part C is a small bracket about 150x150x30mm of which I have a left and right hand sided component, hoping to be done in the same cavity. Simple mould.

All parts will be in PP or modified PP but lets say PP for now and 3mm thick. All parts are two piece moulds, no undercuts and hoping for a lifespan of 5 years on moulds at least.

So Im trying to estimate costs for tooling and capital – don’t get me wrong, this is a total finger in the air guess that Im just using to get approximate figures for now, Im well aware of many features contributing to cost. We are going to start with looking at the higher end machines (Krauss, Engel, Arburg) and go from there. Moulds also hoping to be made in Europe. So, could anyone help me with estimating moulds and machine costs?

Based on moulding factor of 3ton/in^2 or approx. 6500psi(450 bar) for PP, this would give estimated tonnages of
• Part A – 1432 ton/14036kN
• Part B – 614ton / 6015kN
• Part C – 220ton/2153kN

Capital Costs – Complete finger in the air here as Ive never bought such things.
• Part A – 1500 ton machine, €600k?
• Part B – say 700 ton machine, €300k?
• Part C – say 250 ton machine, €150k?

Then, to estimate costs for tooling,
• Part A - €140k?
• Part B - €60k?
• Part C – €35k?

Thanks so much for any help and I know this is a simplified version, were about 18 months out but just to get starting points. Thankyou