Mold Procurement

An injection mold is a complex assembly with many components. As shown in Figure 3.1, most production molds are comprised of a customized mold base, custom feed system, custom mold inserts, and other mold parts. Three alternative procurement options are indicated below each category, wherein the top set is the most common option for production molds. Generally, mold base suppliers are the preferred source for mold bases and generic mold components such as ejector pins, sprue bushings, etc. Similarly, hot runner suppliers are the most common option for highly efficient feed systems in production molds. Most mold cavities and cores are machined into mold inserts and assembled into the customized mold base along with a feed system and other components to realize a functional mold. This procurement strategy is most common as it provides reasonable trade-offs between availability of standard components, reasonable costs, and flexibility in mold design.