Questions to ask your injection molding company
When you are manufacturing a part, the goal is to get your product to market on time and within budget. In order to be successful, you need to make sure you choose the right injection molding partner. Consider these questions to ensure you have chosen the best fit for you.
- Details of Machines and their capabilities. Before you start a relationship with an injection molding company, compare your current and future needs to what production equipment they have available. The right injection molding company will be able to grow with you as you develop additional products.
- What is the guaranteed life of your molds? Mold life depends on the type of material used to construct the mold. Molds built from aluminum are intended for prototype or low volume production, while molds built from steel are for higher volume production. Typically steel molds are guaranteed to produce a minimum of 500K shots. Many molds are built with inserts in areas that tend to wear. This allows replacement of just those areas instead of building an entirely new mold. At Innovative we maintain molds that we build as for as long as we run the production.
- Who have you worked with before? Past performance in injection molding is a good indicator of future results. If the company you’re considering has worked, or is working with other high-quality, reputable companies, it’s a fairly safe bet that they’ll do a good job for you, as well. Here at Innovative, our largest customer is TH Marine. We also do molding for Knight and Hale game calls, Mueller Fire Protection, Joy Global, Howard Industries, HB&G, Playcore and several smaller companies. We are continually working with our customers to develop and launch new projects.
- Who will support the project and communicate with me? You must have ongoing confidence that the project managers who are responsible for your runs, etc. will communicate with you regularly about project status. This is essential to your being able to keep your overall project on time and on budget. Projects are managed by a team, including general manager, customer service manager and engineering, here at Innovative. Communication with the customer is based on what areas are being addressed.
- What quality standards do you follow? Is the company you are considering certified? Certification is performed by a recognized unbiased auditing company. ISO 9001:2015 requires an organization’s QMS to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide products that meets customer requirements. Innovative is ISO 9001-2015 registered.
- Do you offer maintenance support? Ensure the company you are considering has a rigorous and consistent preventative maintenance program for molds that are used in manufacturing in their facilities, as we do here at Innovative.
- Do you have in-house tool capabilities? Tooling is very important in ensuring that quality and cost objectives are met. Utilizing an injection molding company that has in-house tooling capabilities has many advantages and can save time and money.
- What value added services do you offer? In addition to manufacturing the plastic parts, your injection molding company should be able to offer secondary operations to streamline the production schedule. By performing these secondary operations like affixing labels, attaching fasteners, and assembling multi-part products for you. Injection molding companies can help streamline your overall production schedule.
Here at Innovative Plastics, we know how your important injection molding project is. To learn more about us, and how we can help with your projects, now and in the future, contact us today.
