Becoming an inventor is more complicated than most people realize. It’s not just about coming up with the product that every consumer wants to buy. You must also learn about patenting, manufacturing, packaging, promoting, and selling your product.
When it comes to manufacturing and packaging, we can help.
Not every idea is a candidate for injection molding. Building a mold for an injection-molding project can often be very expensive. Even the simplest mold can cost $10,000. However, the benefit of injection molding is that the piece price may be less expensive. Once you know that injection molding is the best method of production for your part, you may wonder what the next step will be.
While all injection molders are unique, the steps to launching a product will be very similar.
- Idea – A product that will benefit consumers and SELL.
- Project Scope - Define how the product will be used.
- Part Design - A CAD drawing of the part based on the project scope.
- Tool Design - A CAD drawing of the mold showing features such as the parting lines and ejector pin placement.
- Part Approval - The first part that will be provided to the customer with a dimensional report. Parts are typically tested to ensure the parts work as intended, and any future requirements are noted. If needed, the part print will be developed based on this step.
- Quality Requirements - Based on the part approval process, critical aspects of the part are defined for future production. These can be measurements or visual requirements.
- Production - Based on the production requirements, cycle time and resin selected, often parts are re-quoted at this stage with a focus on the inventor’s buying expectations. This can be evaluated anytime there is a significant change to the mold, part, or quantity.
- Happy Inventor - Parts that are ready for market.
As an inventor, you may not have experience in the plastic injection-molding industry. Our objective is to give you enough information to become comfortable in approaching injection molders. What you will find is that our industry, like others, has many variables and it’s important for you to compare your quotes and the molder’s capability from a consistent and objective perspective. If you ask the same questions, you’ll be able to compare the feedback and information you receive.