Injection Molding Quotes: What We Need and What Happens Next

We went back and read 105 first emails from people who had never done injection molding before. The oldest was from 2010. The newest came in last week. No names, no company names, no product details, no prices — just the questions.

Fifteen years apart, the questions barely changed. Here’s what people ask, in order of how often:

If you’re about to send your first email to a Chinese mold shop, you’ll probably ask four or five of these at once. That’s normal. They come as a bundle.

This page answers all of them, then walks the whole job from your first email to the container leaving Ningbo.

1. Two numbers, not one: tooling and unit price

Three out of four first emails ask “how much does a mold cost?” Most of them really mean “how much does this whole thing cost?”

Those are separate numbers. They behave differently.

The mold is a one-time cost

You pay for it once. It’s a block of steel we cut, polish and fit to make your exact part. What moves the price:

• Part size. Bigger part, bigger steel, bigger press.
• Complexity. Undercuts, side actions, threads and sliders all add work.
• Cavity count. A 4-cavity mold costs more than a single cavity, but makes parts four times faster.
• Steel grade. Softer steel rated for 50,000 shots is cheaper than hardened steel built for 500,000.
• Surface finish. A mirror polish or a leather grain is real labor, not a setting.

Complexity is the one people underestimate. A simple box opens straight up and drops out. Put a clip on the side wall or a thread on the inside, and the mold needs a moving part to get the plastic out — a slider for outside undercuts, a lifter for inside ones. Each one adds steel, fitting time and cost.

Drag the model below to watch both of them work:

The unit price is what you pay every time

Material, machine time, labor, packing, margin. The big driver is quantity. Run 500 pieces and the setup is spread over 500 parts. Run 50,000 and it nearly disappears.

That’s why a quote with no quantity on it isn’t a quote. It’s a guess.

What a real quotation sheet shows

• Tooling cost, with cavity count and steel grade stated
• Unit price at two or three quantity breaks
• Material grade, and who supplies it
• Mold life in shots
• Lead time, split between mold and production
• Payment terms
• Incoterm and port

Get a single number with no breakdown? Ask for the breakdown. A shop that won’t tell you cavity count and steel grade is hiding something.

One assumption worth killing early: a quote doesn’t start production. Between the quote and your first good part there’s design sign-off, mold design approval and sample approval. Section 7 lays out every step.

2. What we need from you to quote

Here’s the honest version. Not all of it is required.

Must have

1. A 3D file. STEP (.stp/.step) is best. IGES, Parasolid (.x_t) and native SolidWorks or Creo files all work. This is the one thing that turns a conversation into a quote.

2. Quantity — two numbers. How many in the first order, and how many per year after that. Those lead to different molds. If you don’t know the annual figure, guess out loud. “Maybe 2,000 the first year, 10,000 if it sells” is useful. “TBD” is not.

3. What the part has to survive. Not the material name. The job. Outdoor sun? Hot water? Food contact? Skin contact? Dropped on concrete? We’ll suggest the material. Section 5 covers this.

4. Where it’s going. Destination country. It drives compliance (FDA, LFGB, REACH, RoHS) and freight.

Helps a lot

5. A 2D drawing marking the dimensions that actually matter, with tolerances. You don’t need to dimension everything. Mark the three or four features that have to fit something else.

6. Appearance. Color (Pantone if you have it), gloss or matte, texture, logo, printing.

7. Target price. People hate giving this. It saves a week. If your target is far from reality we’ll say so, and usually we can tell you what to change to get closer.

8. Your deadline. Trade show? Crowdfunding delivery date? Put it in the first email.

Don’t need yet

Business license, incorporation papers, a finished brand, a warehouse. People apologize for not having these. None of it is needed to get a quote.

If you want to see how we handle a project once those files land, we’ve written it up here: how we manage injection mold projects, from DFM to shipment.

3. You don’t have a 3D file. Now what?

Forty-five percent of first emails start with something other than CAD. A photo. A sketch on paper. A sample part in a drawer. A link to a similar product. A paragraph of text.

All of these go somewhere. They go to different places.

A sample part in hand. The strongest non-CAD start. We measure it, scan it if needed, and rebuild a 3D model. Mail it over and tell us what you want changed. One catch: reverse-engineering gives you a part that works like the sample. It doesn’t tell us which dimensions are critical and which were accidents of the old tooling. You still have to say.

A dimensioned sketch or paper drawing. Usable. We can model from it. Expect questions about wall thickness and radii.

A photo or rough sketch with no dimensions. We can tell you whether the idea is moldable and give a rough cost range. We can’t give a firm quote. The next step is a model — either you hire a designer, or we build it for you. Price depends on how complex the part is, and the design fee is credited back against your tooling if you order the mold with us.

A product you want to copy. Careful. If it’s someone else’s patented product, we won’t build the mold. If it’s a generic item and you want your own version, that’s ordinary work.

An idea in your head and nothing else. Then you need a designer before you need a mold shop. Molding is the last step in product development, not the first.

Not sure what to tell us? Start here

This walks you through the questions in the right order and emails you a spec sheet at the end. Four paths — idea only, photo or sample, you have files, or already in production — so it skips what doesn’t apply to you. Nothing is sent to us until you hit submit.

4. Minimum order quantity, and the “I only need 200 pieces” problem

Thirty percent of first-time buyers ask about MOQ. Most are worried the answer disqualifies them.

MOQ isn’t a rule invented to annoy small customers. It comes from setup. Mounting a mold in a press, dialing in the process and running until parts are stable takes the same hours whether you then run 300 pieces or 30,000. Below a certain run size, setup dominates and the per-part price looks ugly.

Three things people get wrong:

“Can I skip the mold for a small order?” No. No mold, no molded part. Under a couple of hundred pieces, 3D printing or CNC machining is often cheaper and faster.

“Can I just buy the mold and run it myself?” Yes. We build mold-only. You pay for tooling, we ship you the steel, you run it at home. Ask for both quotes if you’re weighing it.

“My first order is small but I’ll reorder.” Say this in the first email. It changes what we recommend. For most startups in that position the answer is a single-cavity production mold — real steel, real production parts, lower tooling cost, and you add cavities later when volume justifies it.

5. Material: describe the job, not the plastic

Twenty-three percent ask about material, almost always as “what should I use?”

Good. That’s the right way round. Tell us:

• What it touches — food, drink, skin, chemicals, nothing
• Temperature range, including a hot car or a dishwasher
• Indoor or outdoor (UV kills some plastics in a season)
• Does it flex, snap, hinge, or carry load
• Clear, opaque, or doesn’t matter
• Certifications your market requires

We’ll come back with two or three grades and the tradeoff. ABS molds easily and takes texture well. PP flexes forever and costs less. PC is tough and clear and more expensive. Nylon is strong and absorbs water. Each choice moves the unit price, and sometimes the mold design.

Two misunderstandings worth clearing:

“Food grade” is not a material. It’s a compliance status — FDA in the US, LFGB in Germany, something else elsewhere. Many materials have food-contact grades. Tell us the market and we’ll quote a resin with the right certificate and supply the paperwork. That paperwork costs money and takes time. It’s a line item, not a freebie.

The material is yours to approve. It affects price, feel, strength and whether you can legally sell the thing. We recommend. You confirm in writing.

6. Prototype first, or cut the production mold?

Eighteen percent ask about prototyping, usually because they’ve heard they should and don’t know what it costs.

Three different things get called prototyping. They aren’t interchangeable.

3D printed or CNC samples. No mold. Days, not weeks. Good for checking size, fit and whether it looks right in your hand. Not your real material, and it won’t behave like a molded part.

Prototype tooling (soft tooling). A simplified single-cavity mold in aluminum or soft steel. Real material, real molded parts, built fast and cheap. Rated around 2,000 shots. Right when the design may still change, or you need a few hundred real parts for testing or a crowdfunding campaign.

Production tooling. Rated 50,000 shots in standard steel, 500,000 shots in hardened steel. Multi-cavity if your volume justifies it. This is the one you run for years.

The expensive mistake is cutting a production mold before the design is settled. Changing steel means welding and re-cutting — possible, costs money, leaves a mark — or starting over. Adding material to a part is hard. Removing it is easy. If you’re not sure the design is final, say so. It changes what we recommend.

And to be blunt about something several people have assumed: the prototype mold is not the production mold. Its parts prove the design. They aren’t the start of your production run.

7. The whole process, start to shipped

This is the part nobody explains. Every stage, what happens, what you have to do, how long it takes.

Stage 1 — Feasibility and DFM review · 5–7 days

You send files and the information from section 2. An engineer checks moldability: wall thickness, draft angles, undercuts, where the gate goes, where the parting line falls, where ejector pins will leave marks.

You get: a written DFM review with marked-up images, problems and suggested fixes.
You do: read it, ask questions. Nothing to approve yet.

A real DFM review is engineering work on a real 3D file. “Can you make this?” with nothing attached gets you an opinion, not a review.

Stage 2 — Quotation · 3–5 days after the DFM is settled

You get: tooling cost, unit price at quantity breaks, mold life, cavity count, steel grade, lead times, payment terms, Incoterm.
You do: compare, negotiate, ask what would make it cheaper. Ask now. After the steel is cut it’s too late.

Stage 3 — Order and deposit

Purchase order or signed sales contract. NDA signed here if you want one. Tooling deposit paid — see section 10.

You do: confirm the final 3D file. Whatever you confirm here is what gets cut into steel.

Stage 4 — Mold design and your approval · 7–10 days

We design the mold itself: layout, cavity and core, cooling, ejection, gate type and location. Complicated or thin-walled parts get a mold flow simulation.

You get: the mold design package — gate location, parting line, ejector pin positions, and the shrinkage rate we’re applying.
You do: approve it in writing. Look hard at gate and ejector positions. They leave visible marks, and this is your only chance to say “not on that face.”

Stage 5 — Mold making · 4–8 weeks

Steel ordered and rough machined, CNC, EDM for sharp internal corners, polishing or texturing, then fitting and assembly. Simple single-cavity molds land at the short end. Multi-cavity molds with side actions take the full eight.

You get: progress photos every week.
You do: nothing. Watch the photos.

Stage 6 — T1 trial and first samples · 3 days after the mold is finished

The mold goes into a press for the first time. Parts come out. We measure them against your drawing and film the molding cycle.

You get: T1 samples by UPS or FedEx, freight on us, plus a dimensional report.
You do: the important part. Test them. Fit them to mating parts. Put them in the environment they’ll live in. Then approve, or list exactly what’s wrong.

Stage 7 — Modifications: T2, T3 · 7–10 days per round

Almost nothing is perfect at T1. Expect at least one round.

Three rounds are included. Small corrections are free — dimensions, finish, warpage, the usual tuning. If you change the design itself, that’s a new quotation. Fixing our mistake is on us. Changing your mind is a cost.

Stage 8 — Sample approval

You sign off a golden sample. From then on, that part is the standard every production part is measured against. Keep one yourself.

Stage 9 — Mass production · about 4 days per 1,000 pieces

Balance paid before shipment. Material bought, mold runs, QC inspects at two levels: first article off the first shot, then random sampling through the run.

You get: inspection report, dimensional report, material certificate, plus photos and video.

Stage 10 — Packing

Inner bags, cartons, carton markings, barcode labels if you’re going to retail or Amazon FBA. Tell us before production, not after. FBA labels applied afterwards cost more and delay shipment.

Stage 11 — Shipping

Section 8.

Stage 12 — After shipment

The mold is cleaned, rust-protected and stored at our factory, ready for your reorder. Storage is free for normal reorder cycles. If a mold sits idle long term, there’s a small storage charge.

Reorders skip stages 1 through 8 entirely. That’s why the second order is fast.

Want to see this run end to end on a real job? Read the 20L paint bucket mold case study — same twelve stages, with the actual decisions.

8. Shipping and Incoterms

Fourteen percent asked about freight. The usual misunderstanding is assuming the quoted price includes delivery to your door. It doesn’t.

Three terms cover nearly everything:

EXW (Ex Works). Price is parts sitting in our factory. You arrange everything from there. Lowest headline number, most work for you.

FOB Ningbo or FOB Shanghai. We get the goods to the port, cleared for export, loaded. You pay the ocean or air freight and everything on your side. This is what we quote by default unless you say otherwise.

DDP (Delivered Duty Paid). To your door, duties and customs handled. Simplest for you, highest number. We do it, and it’s common for first-time importers who don’t have a customs broker yet.

Small urgent batches go by air — we arrange that too. What drives cost: volume more than weight (plastic parts are light and bulky, so packing design matters), air versus sea, destination port, and the season. A rush air shipment can cost more than the parts inside it.

To quote freight we need your destination city and port, your preferred term, and whether you already have a forwarder. If you don’t, say so.

One duty note: on EXW and FOB, import duty is yours. It’s calculated on the part’s HS code. Ask us for the code early so you can check your country’s rate before committing.

9. NDAs, copying, and who owns the mold

Ten percent asked about confidentiality, usually some version of “how do I know you won’t copy this?”

Fair question. Straight answers.

Signing an NDA is normal. Send yours, or use ours. We sign before you send detailed files.

But don’t hide so much that nobody can help you. Several first emails wouldn’t say what the product was at all before an NDA was signed. We can’t tell you whether we can make something we’re not allowed to know about. Describe it generally — “a snap-fit enclosure about the size of a deck of cards, with a clear window” — get the NDA signed, then send files.

An NDA is not an order. It protects information. It commits neither side to anything else.

Storage after shipment is covered in stage 12.

10. Budget and payment

“I have no idea what to budget”

Six percent said it outright. More were thinking it. The useful way to think about it isn’t one number, it’s a structure:

• Design, if you don’t have a finished 3D file
• Prototypes, to check fit and look
• Tooling — the one-time big number, from around $1,000–$1,500 for something small and simple
• Parts — unit price times quantity
• Freight, duty, and certification if your market needs it

The range narrows fast once three things are known: part size, annual quantity, material. Pin those three down and anyone can give you a sane number.

Payment terms

Tooling: 30% / 30% / 40%, or 50% / 50%. The split depends on the size of the job and we’ll agree it before you order.

Production: balance before shipment.

Methods: T/T (bank transfer) or L/C.

Ask about terms while you’re still quoting, not after. And ask what triggers each payment — “before shipment” and “after sample approval” are very different risk profiles for you.

Just send us this

If you read nothing else on this page, copy this into your first email and fill in what you know. Blanks are fine. Tell us what you don’t know and we’ll tell you how to find out.

That last line matters more than people expect. First-time buyers and experienced buyers need different conversations, and there’s nothing embarrassing about being new. A hundred and five people before you weren’t sure either.

Frequently asked questions