EspañolAs COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact every part of our lives, the usual routes of travelling to China and visiting tooling shops are not accessible during this time of social distancing..Meanwhile, the number of mold makers in China grows exponentially every year. Now you can use the internet to search for the right molding company, but the stream of websites will be overwhelming for you to narrow down. How can you separate the reliable ones from those who are not up to the standard? These are the things you need to consider when you’re looking for a good mold maker in China.
- Check if mold makers offerPrototyping Services
A good mold maker respects your idea and turns it into reality. Request prototypes to test your product’s feasibility or if you just want to see how the part will look. Prototyping is a way of making a finished product without building a tool by means of CNC machining ,3D printing or low cost soft tooling. This way, you can have a sample of how your part will look, feel, and function. This will mean lesser costs for you because a greater cost will derive from building a tool right away.Prototyping will lower the risk of a wasted investment and a reliable plastic injection molding company understands that.
Manufacturing CAPABILITIES
It is vital to get a tooling company who can actually manufacture the product you want. Seek the injection molding company that has decades of experience in plastic injection mold making and plastic injection molding so you will be at peace throughout the whole manufacturing process. Don’t be blind by just the size. Sometimes verifying a tooling supplier’s manufacturing capabilities is harder than simply talking to sales representative you found off Alibaba. A quality mold maker should be able to consistently manufacture a product that meets your requirements.
Try to understand a supplier by verifying areas such as:
- The location of the company. An efficient mold maker is located in a strategic location like Dongguan.
- (Incoming quality control, in-process quality control and pre-shipment quality control procedures
- R&D capabilities (important if you plan to develop new products)
- Machine and equipment list andcalibration
- Certifications or licensing (e.g. business license, export license)
EASE OF COMMUNICATION
Effective communication is important. It’s often necessary to call your supplier contact to discuss tooling specification and other technical issues. If you send your supplier a long, complicated email without following up, you may find they don’t entirely understand it. I have a client from Russia and he is very fluent in Chinese. Even so, he has great obstacles in communicating with other suppliers who doesn’t have English contact or no technical tooling background. A supplier without English-speaking staff probably doesn’t work with many international customers or export to foreign markets.
ACCOUNTABILITY FOR QUALITY ISSUES
A qualified tool maker with accountability will take responsibility for the quality problem and work forward to address it quickly. This is a very important quality for mold maker as well. When there is any issue with the mold, the whole production line has stopped. A responsible molding company might offer to send replacement part or provide instant technical support. A tooling supplier that won’t own up to their mistakes can hinder your ability to meet deadlines and product requirements. Look for signs of accountability as a key characteristic of a good supplier.